


The Order of the Phoenix

by Tay_Quin



Series: Harry’s Slytherin Sister [4]
Category: Emma Evans: The Slytherin Sister - Taylor Quinlan, Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Book 5: Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, Dumbledore’s Army, F/F, F/M, Gryffindor, Harry Potter - Freeform, Harry has a sister, Hogwarts, Hufflepuff, Inquisitorial Squad, M/M, Magic, Magical Creatures, Match, Ministry, Occlumency, Order of the Phoenix - Freeform, Phoenix - Freeform, Potions, Prophecy, Quidditch, Ravenclaw, Seeker, Slytherin, Slytherin sister, Teachers, Transfiguration, Umbridge is a bitch, legilmency, minister
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-21
Updated: 2020-09-10
Packaged: 2021-03-06 15:27:50
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 21
Words: 49,176
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26021182
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Tay_Quin/pseuds/Tay_Quin
Summary: Short starter chapter :)
Relationships: Albus Dumbledore/Gellert Grindelwald, Andromeda Black Tonks/Ted Tonks, Angelina Johnson/George Weasley, Arthur Weasley/Molly Weasley, Cho Chang/Marietta Edgecombe, Colin Creevey/Luna Lovegood, Dennis Creevey/Original Female Character(s), Draco Malfoy/Original Female Character(s), Ginny Weasley/Tracey Davis, Harry Potter/Daphne Greengrass, Hermione Granger/Fred Weasley, Lily Evans Potter/James Potter, Lucius Malfoy/Narcissa, Neville Longbottom/Astoria Greengrass, Pansy Parkinson/Blaise Zabini, Ron Weasley/Lavender Brown, Sirius Black/Remus Lupin, Theodore Nott/Original Male Character(s)
Series: Harry’s Slytherin Sister [4]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1696795
Comments: 19
Kudos: 104





	1. Instincts

**Author's Note:**

> Short starter chapter :)

_James was pacing back and forth, a sign of the stress both he and Lily were feeling. Barty Crouch Junior had just ambushed one of their very best friends; Remus. He had locked Remus away and then he had become him. He had broken up with Sirius, another one of their best friends._

_From there, things had gone down hill, exponentially. Their son, Harry, had been forced into the TriWizard Tournament. But... he had done well, excelled even. Much of the credit belonged with his sister, Emma, but some of it was his own. Some of the credit, though James loathed to admit it, even went to his school enemy, Severus Snape._

_Emma was a clever girl, far too clever for her age. She had succeeded in becoming an animagus on her very first attempt. Lily and James were worried for her though. Both did their best to give her the benefit of the doubt, but stealing such awful books, from Dumbledore no less, wasn’t providing them with much comfort._

_And then Voldemort was back, Harry was fighting him, and something tugged at them. In spite of Harry’s peril, they followed that tug. And it led them back, back to the land of the living, to their son. They had done everything they could to save him, and it had worked, he had escaped. They had been sent back to death, where they had welcomed Cedric Diggory with open arms._

_Remus had been freed, he had killed his mimicker and Emma had fled. She had gone into the woods, the Forbidden Forest, where she had run smack into Peter Pettigrew. Peter, who had killed Cedric, Peter who had revived Voldemort, Peter who had betrayed Lily and James._

_They thought for sure that she would condemn him. Kill him or turn him in to the ministry, but she did neither. She let him go, with a piece of advice and nothing more. Was this mercy or part of some bigger scheme she had cooked up? Lily suspected it was a mixture of both._

_Lily was glad for Emma, how would Harry survive without her? Emma had even managed to make it so Harry and herself could live with Sirius and Remus for the summer. She really was something, a little spitfire with the skill to back it up._

_Lily sometimes even began to doubt the prophecy, would Harry be the one to defeat Voldemort at all? Or would it be Emma? The latter seemed far more likely than what the prophecy had stated. And it was true, some prophecies went unfulfilled... but Lily could sense that that wasn’t to be the case with this one. She just had this feeling, and her instincts were usually right._

_She longed to see her children again, to be able to speak to them. Sure, she and James had been able to speak with Harry, but that was only briefly and they had been focused on saving him from Voldemort. Lily and James had not actually had the chance to talk to him, to really, truly talk to him. And they hadn’t been able to see Emma at all._

_At least Lily knew she would be able to see her babies again eventually. But in that sense, she hoped it would take them an extremely long while to join her and James in the afterlife._


	2. Kreacher

“Draco!” I hissed. “What happened?” With a flick of my wand, my bedroom door was locked and then I was striding over to him. I helped him to sit on my bed and began working on his wounds.

“Blaise’s mom was driving us back to their house. She had been really scared, paranoid and she was driving really fast. We kept asking what was wrong but she wouldn’t say. Finally we got her to tell us, and Emma, they’re already recruiting, the death eaters. They tried to get her to join up, but she refused them. We saw them, they apparated onto the street ahead of us and blew up the car. Blaise’s mom apparated us out, but in the rush, she splinched us. We were outnumbered, she told us to run and well, we both had our brooms, so we flew. But they were ready for that, they had brooms of their own, or at least some of them did. They tailed us, and we had to separate, I don’t know where either of them are now. They might not even be alive.” He finished as the last of his wounds stitched themselves back together and the blood vanished.

“There,” I said, “All better. Where are Tully and Cyclone?”

“I don’t know where Tully is, but I’m sure he’s fine. Cyclone was in the car when it exploded, no one could have survived that.” He said sadly.

Just then, there was a knock at my bedroom door. Both of us froze where we were and stared at the door. After a moment, I said, “Yes?”

“Do you know where you are?” Asked Dumbledore. I thought for a moment, and was surprised to realize that I had no idea where I was.

“No,” I said slowly, embarrassed by my ignorance.

“Ah, it worked then. If you were to leave this house, you would never be able to find it again. You are in number twelve Grimmauld Place, Sirius’ house and the headquarters of the Order of the Phoenix.” He said, a smile hinting in his voice. And the second those words reached my ears, it all came rushing back. He was the secret keeper of the location of this house. Now both Draco and I knew the secret, we would always be able to see this house. I wondered if Dumbledore knew Draco was here. I wouldn’t be surprised, we hadn’t been talking all that quietly.

I waited to speak until I heard Dumbledore’s footsteps fade away. “We should write to Blaise, if he’s out there, Tambor will find him.” Draco nodded and we migrated over to my desk.

Dear, Blaise

Draco is here, with me. He is alright. He told me what happened and how you were forced to split up. Are you okay? Are you safe? Do not send your location, in case this letter or yours is intercepted. Please be careful and I do hope you are okay.

-Emma

I sealed the envelope and tied it to Tambor’s leg and she soared off into the sky.

“Who else is here?” Draco asked in a hushed whisper.

“Uh, the whole Weasley family, aside from Bill, Charlie and Percy. Hermione, Remus, Sirius, and the house elf, Kreacher. He loathes everyone but he might like you since you are a pureblood and a relative of his deceased ‘mistress.’ He’s gone a bit mad though, so we try to be kind.” Draco raised his eyebrows at me.

“You keep a mad elf?”

I grinned. “I knew you’d say that. Dobby promised to visit too, but he might retract the offer, now that you’re here.”

“Dobby?” Draco asked, perplexed.

“Yeah, he works at Hogwarts now, and he gets paid. Hermione has been trying to convince the others to ask for pay too, but none of them will do it.” I explained, “She wants them all to be freed. She even started an organization this year called S.P.E.W. It stands for something like ‘Society for Promoting Elfish Welfare.’ Hardly anyone is in it, but she won’t give up on it.”

“And are you in it?” He asked, bemused.

“Yes.” I said. “So, do you want to stay here? Because you can, we will just have to hide you, because Harry doesn’t know that you know and I would like to keep it that way.”

“I mean, I have no where else to go.”

“So, it’s settled then.” I said and promptly used an expansion charm on the bed. “Here, get some rest, I’ll bring up some supper in a bit.”

***

Dinner was to be directly followed by an Order meeting, something Mrs. Weasley was determined to keep the children out of. She, Remus and Sirius prepared all of the food while the children went around the house cleaning and throwing things out.

I found nothing interesting expect for a locket, that wouldn’t open to any spell. It had a great big ‘S’ on it, shaped from some sort of green gemstone.

Kreacher walked in and froze when he saw me holding it, his eyes going wide. “Kreacher?” I asked, “What is this?” He said nothing and simply continued to stare, his eyes darting back and forth between me and it. I wasn’t his master, so he didn’t have to answer me. I didn’t want to involve Sirius, who was in the midst of arguing with Mrs. Weasley about whether or not Harry and I should be allowed to sit in on the Order meetings. Perhaps he would talk to Draco though. I narrowed my eyes at him and strode into the kitchen. Cutting off Mrs. Weasley mid sentence, I said, “Sirius, could you tell Kreacher to go to my room, he won’t listen to me.”

“Kreacher,” Sirius called, “Go to Emma’s room.” Kreacher muttered under his breath, but apparated up there anyway.

“Thanks,” I said before dashing up the stairs. I hurried into my room, where I found Kreacher waiting, Draco staring at him.

“Kreacher, this is Draco, Draco Malfoy. He is Narcissa’s son.”

Kreacher’s eyes lit up, “He’s pureblood? Like my mistress?”

“Yes.” Kreacher gazed wonderingly at him. Draco looked to me, very confused.

I mouthed to him, ‘Be nice. And ask him what this is.’ I held up the locket.

“Kreacher,” Draco began, unsure, “Can you tell me what that is?” He motioned to the locket in my hand.

Kreacher seemed to be arguing with himself internally, but finally he said, “It, it was the Dark Lord’s, Master Regulus stole it away from him and... and he told Kreacher to destroy it.”

“Regulus was a death eater, why would he steal this from Voldemort?” I asked. Kreacher glared at me.

“Answer her, Kreacher.” Draco said.

“He said it would help to kill the Dark Lord and Master Regulus wanted to kill him.”

“Why? I thought he was a death eater, I thought he agreed with Voldemort.” I said.

“Master Regulus wanted to protect Master Sirius, he didn’t want them to be on opposite sides.” Kreacher said.

“Tell us everything that happened, please.” I said.

“Master Regulus joined the death eaters when he was sixteen. The Dark Lord needed a house elf, so Master Regulus told Kreacher to go with him and then come back when he was done. The Dark Lord took Kreacher to a cave near the sea, inside there was a cavern and in that, a lake with a boat. Kreacher rode the boat to the island and the Dark Lord made creature drink the potion in the basin. As Kreacher drank, he felt terrible things, saw terrible things, but Kreacher drank all of the potion. Once the potion was gone, the Dark Lord put the locket inside and filled it with more potion. And then the Dark Lord left, and Kreacher was trapped on the island.”

Kreacher was taking great gulping breaths now, terror etched across his bat like face, his tennis ball sized eyes wide with alarm.

“But Kreacher was so thirsty so he went to the lake and drank. And hands, hands of the dead rose from the water and dragged him under.” Kreacher stopped speaking, unable to continue. I did my best to remain patient, giving him several minutes to compose himself.

My patience wavered and I burst, “So you apparated home then?”

He nodded.

“How did the locket get here then?”

“Kreacher told Master Regulus what had happened and Master Regulus was very worried. He came to get Kreacher from his cupboard one night. Master Regulus was acting strangely, but he asked Kreacher to take him to the cave, so Kreacher did. Kreacher and Master Regulus sailed across the lake and Master Regulus pulled a fake locket from his pocket. It looked almost the same. He told Kreacher to switch the lockets when the basin had been emptied. He told Kreacher to go home without him and never tell Mistress what had happened. Master Regulus told Kreacher to destroy the locket.”

Kreacher had become so overcome by emotion again that he was forced to stop. We gave him a few more minutes, and this time, he needed no prompting, and continued to speak on his own.

“Master Regulus drank all of the potion. Kreacher swapped the lockets. Kreacher watched as Master Regulus was dragged beneath the water. Kreacher had to leave without Master Regulus. Kreacher tried everything he could to destroy the locket, but nothing worked, nothing so much as made a scratch on it. There were too many protective spells on the casing. Kreacher was sure the way to destroy it was to get inside it, but Kreacher could not get it open. Kreacher punished himself and tried again and punished himself, but nothing worked. Mistress was maddened in her grief, but Kreacher could not tell her that Regulus was dead.”

“Thank you, Kreacher.” I said. “We are going to try and destroy this, okay? To finish off Regulus’ work.”

“You can go back to your cupboard.” Draco added, with his best attempt at kindness towards the sniveling elf.

The second he was gone, I whirled around to face Draco. “I think this is a horcrux.”

“Let me see.” He said, taking it from my hands and holding it out gingerly as though it might explode at any moment. “It looks like... but no... it couldn’t be...” He trailed off.

“What?”

“It looks like Salazar Slytherin’s locket.”

“It could be,” I mused, “Voldemort was a direct descendant of Salazar Slytherin after all.”

Draco examined it for a few more moments. “So, how do you reckon we get it opened?”

I shrugged, “I haven’t got a clue.”

Just then, Honey slithered over and hissed her answer. “Speak Parseltongue to it.”

‘Thanks.’ I said in Parseltongue, testing it. Nothing. ‘Open!’

That did the trick. The locket flipped open with loud popping hiss. I jumped back and Draco nearly dropped it. Dark smoke began to erupt from deep within its depths and then Draco really did drop it. It clattered to the floor and the smoke grew taller. Higher and higher it climbed and I could see something forming within it, two somethings. One was a boy with messy black hair and glasses, the other a girl with long straight red hair. They were formed in shades of palest gray, except for the eyes, their eyes were a bright and horrible red.

It was me! And Harry! Both of our smoke forms were staring at Draco, no, glaring at him, with the upmost hatred plastered across our faces. And then, they opened their mouths to speak.


	3. Meeting

“She lied to you, for years. Over and over, she lied to you about me. She had no problem lying to you about me, so what else has she lied to you about?” Smoke Harry spat.

“I have no problem keeping things from you, I could be hiding a million more things from you. Everything about me could be a lie. Do you really know anything at all about me?” Smoke me hissed.

“Maybe I’m not her brother at all. Maybe she loves me, the way she pretends to love you.”

Draco raised his eyebrows and snorted. “How do we get rid of it, Em?”

The smoke versions of Harry and I continued to goad Draco, but I chose to tune them out. “Uh... fiendfyre, dragon’s fire breath, and the killing curse. Well and Basilisk venom. We can try the killing curse but I’m not sure if it will work because the locket is an inanimate object.”

“And Lupin, or I guess it was Crouch, said that you really have to mean it, otherwise it won’t work.” He said.

“Right, I forgot about that, let’s just each give it one go and if it doesn’t work, we can go to Hogwarts and fetch a Basilisk fang.”

“Do you want to go first?” He asked.

“Sure,” I said. I concentrated on my hate for Voldemort. He had killed my mother and father, he had forced me to grow up with the Dursleys. He had tried to kill my brother. “Avada Kedavra!” Nothing happened, the two continued to prattle on in an attempt to turn Draco against me.

My anger wasn’t enough. Sure he had killed my parents, but that was a long time ago. And sure I had been forced to live in the Dursley’s house, but now I was with my Godfather, his boyfriend, my friends. I was... happy. And my brother had survived, escaped, every time.

“Avada Kedavra!” Draco groaned. “Shit!” Nothing had happened. Apparently, Draco’s anger wasn’t enough either. I sighed.

“Alright, Basilisk fang it is.” I said.

“But how are we supposed to get it?” Draco asked.

“Not a clue.” I said, “We’ll figure it out though. For now, maybe we can try to get this shut, dinner will be ready soon.”

“Right then, er, how do we close it?”

‘Close.’ I tried in Parseltongue. It didn’t work. “Okay, uh, how about we just force it shut.”

Draco picked it up and immediately dropped it, swearing under his breath.

“What happened?” I asked.

“It’s really hot.” He hissed through gritted teeth.

“Glacius!” I cried. And ice encased the locket, allowing Draco to snap it shut with ease. He hung it by the chain upon the bedpost and sauntered to the door.

“After you,” He said, holding it open. I rushed over and shoved him away from it, slamming it closed. “What was that for?”

“You can’t go down there!” I said, exasperated. “I’m hiding you, remember, if Harry knew you were here, he’d throw a fit. We have to be careful, remember?” Draco sighed.

“If you insist.” He flopped back onto our bed and let out a long, dramatic groan.

“Oh, don’t be a baby.” I laughed.

“But you’re torturing me!” To punctuate his words, Latte and Emmett curled themselves against him, purring loudly.

“Ah yes, you seem to be in copious amounts of pain.” I joked and he snorted.

***

Dinner was long and slow and full of tension. A tension that only grew when it came time for the Order of the Phoenix’s meeting to commence. Mrs. Weasley was operating under the firm belief that she could keep the ‘children’ out of this. She didn’t want us to have to worry about these things. What she didn’t realize was that we would worry no matter what and it would put our minds at ease to know what the Order was doing to combat the terror being inflicted by the death eaters.

“I’m staying.” I said over the noise of Sirius and Mrs. Weasley’s shouting match.

Mrs. Weasley rounded on me. “Dear it is not up to you, you are a child.”

“So who is it up to then?” I asked, “Because last I checked, my parents are dead!”

“Exactly so I-” She began.

But I cut her off, “Oh no! You don’t get to do that! You are not my mother, nor are you my guardian. Remus and Sirius are!” She looked offended, but I forced myself to remain strong, to keep the guilt from creeping in. “Look, Sirius says my parents would let me stay and he knew them best, so I’m staying.”

In a last ditch effort, Mrs. Weasley said, “Well, I think the Order should vote on it.” As if on cue, Order members began to enter via the floo network. They seated themselves around the table, greeting one another and looking uncharacteristically cheery. I didn’t like it. But even more so, I didn’t like that I hardly recognized any of them.

A young woman with bright pink hair seated herself to my left and introduced herself as ‘Tonks.’

“Good to meet you Tonks, I’m Emma, Emma Potter.” The name tasted funny as it passed through my lips. Never before had I said it. But that was my name after all, wasn’t it?

“Lovely meeting you too, Emma. Here, I’ll give you a quick rundown, I don’t expect you to remember all of this, my memory is dreadful, but maybe one or two names will stick. Of course you already know Dumbledore, Molly, Arthur, Severus, Sirius and Remus. That’s Alastor Moody there, and he’s Kingsley Shacklebolt.” She gestured to two men, one of them was severely disfigured and scarred, the other had dark skin and a large dangling earring. I quite liked it.

“Then of course, Dumbledore’s brother, Aberforth. Arabella Figg is next to him, she’s your neighbor right?” Dumbledore had a brother? That was news to me. And that old lady, Mrs. Figg had babysat Harry and I as children. She had shown us a plethora of cat pictures, which I enjoyed but Harry was utterly bored by.

“That bloke there is Dedalus Diggle and beside him is Emmeline Vance and beside her is Elphias Doge.” The three of them looked rather friendly, I couldn’t see any of them being able to stand a chance against a death eater. That thought was rather troubling but I tried to shove it down.

“Ah yes, you know Minerva McGonagall too. Mundungus Fletcher is there and you ought to watch out for him, he’s got some sticky fingers, that one. Hagrid, oh right, he’s a teacher at your school now too. Sturgis Podmore. Flock of Weasley’s, Bill, Charlie, already mentioned Arthur and Molly, then that’s Hestia Jones. Fleur Delacour was one the champions in the TriWizard Tournament last year, she was for Beauxbaton. Augusta Longbottom, she’s Neville’s grandmother, the charms Professor at your school, Filius Flitwick. Olympe Maxime. Pomona Sprout, and Sybil Trelawney. So yeah, that just about does it.” She finished, leaving my head spinning with names and faces that I couldn't match together.

There was a commotion beginning at the doorway to the dining room and, shocker, Molly was at the heart of it. Fred, George, Ginny, Hermione and Ron were arguing with her, it would seem that they wanted to stay too. I massaged my temples and rested my chin on the table.

“What’s going on?” Tonks asked.

“Molly doesn’t think that we should be able to stay for these meetings, she wants to put it to a vote.”

Tonks scoffed, “That woman is such a shield.”

I had no idea what that meant but nodded my head in agreement anyway.

Finally, Dumbledore called for quiet and everyone took a seat. Molly had been forced to conjure up another chair, seeing as I had taken hers. I didn’t know why, but that felt like a small victory to me.

The others who wished to be included in the meeting were standing around behind us, leaned against the wall and doorframe.

Molly proposed her idea of a vote, which Dumbledore shot down immediately. “Emma and Harry can stay, I agree with Sirius and Remus, their parents would allow them to be here. And you cannot stop Fred and George from staying, they are of age. You also have no jurisdiction over Hermione, that decision resides with her parents. But seeing as they are not here and likely will not understand the stakes, I believe she should be allowed to stay as well. She is incredibly smart, she might even be able to help us. Ron and Ginny should stay too. Harry, Hermione and Emma will just tell them everything that happens anyway.”

For once in my life, I was glad for Dumbledore, if only because he was the only one Molly wouldn’t argue with. The only one Molly wouldn’t fight on it.

Several more chairs were conjured up from thin air and the others all sat, seeming rather pleased with themselves for managing to score seats at the table.

“Right, now that everyone is settled, let’s kick things off, shall we?” Asked Tonks.

Kingsley Shacklebolt spoke up first, “The death eaters have been recruiting. Many people have gone missing from the ministry. Nazim Zabini, her son, Blaise Zabini and Blaise’s friend Draco Malfoy have all disappeared. The remains of their ministry issued car was found in pieces on a street one hundred miles from King’s Cross Station. They are presumed to be dead.” At the news, several heads turned in my direction and it took a moment for me to realize that I was supposed to react. And by that point it was too late, so I remained motionless.

Another Wizard piped up, “Narcissa Malfoy is missing too, she hasn’t been in her manor for the past several days.” I drew a sharp intake of breath, this was news to me, I hoped that she had joined up with the death eaters, because the latter was so much worse.

Moody growled, “That’s child’s play compared with what I got. There has been a jailbreak, a massive one from Azkaban. All of the prisoners who were rounded up at the World Cup last year are free. Bellatrix Lestrange is free too, along with a good twenty other death eaters who were rounded up after Voldemort fell the first time.”

Emmeline Vance added, “Gellert Grindelwald has been freed from Nurmengard too.”

I saw something on Dumbledore’s face then, was that fear? And by the way Aberforth’s attention snapped to his brother’s face, it would seem there was a history there.

“Severus?” Asked Dumbledore, “Your report?”

“Nazim, Blaise, and Draco are all missing, none of the death eaters were able to catch any of them, nor were they killed. Narcissa has joined back up with them, as have all of the freed prisoners from Azkaban. The giants, majority of the werewolves and the dementors have all sided with the Dark Lord as well. Gellert Grindelwald faced off with the Dark Lord, calling him a simple minded child. They had quite the duel, neither was killed but Grindelwald escaped. The Dark Lord sent death eaters to hunt him down, but none of those death eaters have returned, I believe they are all dead or at least detained. The Dark Lord is focused on recruiting, beyond that, he hasn’t shared anything else of his plans with me.”

The rest of the meeting included nothing of real substance, just speculation and vague ideas. After a few hours, people began to depart. Snape took that as a prime opportunity to pull me off to the side.

“You didn’t react, when Shacklebolt said Blaise and Draco were missing, you know something.” Snape said.

“Draco’s upstairs.” I said, “We wrote to Blaise, but I haven’t heard back yet.”

“How the hell did Draco get here? Did Dumbledore tell him the secret?” Snape asked.

“No, he flew here and came in through my window, before Dumbledore finished the charm. And when Dumbledore came to tell me, Draco was standing right beside me, so he heard too.”

“And why didn’t you tell The Order that Draco is here?”

“Because Harry doesn’t know that Draco knows that Harry is my brother and I would like to keep it that way. I don’t need a fight with him right now, not with everything that’s going on.”

“You need to tell the others though, Sirius and Remus for one thing.” Snape insisted.

“Is there a problem here?” Sirius growled, sidling up to us.


	4. Salazar’s Locket

“No, there’s no problem.” I said quickly. Snape raised his eyebrows at me and I knew I wouldn’t be able to get out of this. So, I said, “Fine, Draco is upstairs in my room, I’ve been hiding him here since the first day. He got separated from Nazim and Blaise after the death eaters blew up their car. I’m sorry, but Sirius, he had nowhere else to go!” Snape strode away, satisfied.

“Okay.” Sirius said, very anticlimactically.

“Okay?” I asked, surprised. “That’s it?”

“Well, yeah, what did you expect?” He asked.

“Well, I don’t know, he’s the son of a high ranking death eater, living in the Order of the Phoenix’s headquarters.”

“Did you know that I lived with your father?” He asked. I shook my head. “For two summers. I was kicked out of this place because, unlike my brother, I was not intent on joining the death eaters. So they made me leave. I showed up on your dad’s doorsteps in the middle of the night. I didn’t have any money, nothing expect for my books for school and my robes. I wouldn’t have survived without your dad and his parents. If they hadn’t let me stay... well, I couldn’t do that to Draco. Not when he is in the exact same spot as I was at his age. I don’t want him to end up like Regulus.”

“And what did happen to Regulus?” I asked. Of course, I knew the true answer, but I didn’t know what Sirius thought.

“He just vanished one day without a trace. He’s dead though, I’m sure of it. He was killed. From my understanding he got so far in and then got scared and tried to back out, but you can’t just resign from the death eaters.” Sirius explained. It hurt me to not tell him what I knew, that his brother was a hero and had died to try and take down Voldemort. But I knew that would only lead to more questions and complications, so I held my tongue.

“Thank you, but please... don’t tell Harry, I want to do it... in my own time. And now... just isn’t it.” I pleaded.

“Okay, alright, fine. But Emma, you do have to tell him, at some point, you know that, right?” Sirius said gently.

“Yes, and I will. Just not yet, not now.”

“Then when?”

“When the time is right.”

“Emma, I’ve found that when it comes to these kinds of things, the time is never right.”

***

“Okay, so we need to figure out how to get ourselves to Hogwarts.” I said, when I was back in my room with Draco. “Because I don’t know about you, but I’m not really in the mood to go flying there and it would take far too long anyway.”

“And we need to take the protections around the castle into account.” Draco added.

I groaned, “Ugh, I forgot about those.”

“You could just tell Dumbledore about what’s going on.” Draco suggested.

“No.” I said.

“Why not?”

“Because... I stole those books from Dumbledore, and in asking for his aid, I would have to admit what I had done. And I would be expelled for sure, I cannot risk that.” I explained.

“How about the Floo Network?”

“Are there any exit points in Hogwarts?”

“I don’t know, in the past, has the minister come via floo?”

I shrugged, “No idea. If only we could apparate, then we could get ourselves straight to Hogsmeade and then get into the castle from there.”

“We could always just wait until the school year starts.”

“Yes but, Draco, that’s months away. We need to act fast.”

“Okay, so let’s just take it to some deserted field and set it on fire. We can use Fiendfyre or the fire dragon spit thing.”

“Fiendfyre is extremely difficult and requires a certain kind of darkness. If we can’t manage the killing curse then we can’t use Fiendfyre. And it’s even harder to stop than it is to start. We could burn the whole country down. It’s among the restricted magic. And dragon’s fire breath has to come directly from the source, how the hell are we supposed to get a dragon?”

“Emma, I know you want to do this on our own, but I think we need some help.” Draco said.

I nodded, knowing he was right. “Charlie!” I said, in sudden realization.

“Weasley?” Draco asked. Then understanding dawned on him too. “Oh! He works with dragons, doesn’t he?”

“Yes, he was a part of the group who brought over the dragons for the TriWizard tournament, from Romania.”

“So what, you want him to take us to Romania?”

“No, I’m hoping that the dragons are still here.”

“That would be a right piece of luck if they were.” Draco said.

“Oh stop it, you’re going to jinx me.”

“Are these really our only options? Risk burning down a country, travel a great distance to find a dragon or break into one of the safest places on the planet to steal a giant snake’s tooth?”

“That just about sums it up. What, did you think destroying a piece of Voldemort’s soul was going to be easy?”

“Honestly? Yeah, I mean I knew it wouldn’t be simple as picking a daisy, but I thought it would just be ‘Avada Kedavra’ and we’d be done with it. You know, channeling darkness, not journeying across the globe in search of thing after thing. When we might fail anyway.”

“Draco, if you don’t want to do this, then I can do it alone, I don’t want to drag you into all of this.” I said.

“Emma, of course I’m going to help you.” Draco said, grinning, “I want him gone just as much as you do. I’m sorry, I just like complaining.”

“Now that, I can understand.” I laughed. “But we need to figure out how we are destroying this damned locket.”

“Let’s try Fred, perhaps he can manage side along apparation.” Draco said.

“Kreacher wasn’t meaning to overhear.” Said a voice from just beyond the door. I groaned.

“Come in Kreacher.” I called and the door opened with a loud creak.

“Kreacher is sorry. Kreacher wasn’t meaning to listen.”

“It’s okay, Kreacher. We’re just trying to figure out how to get to thing that will destroy this locket, to fulfill Regulus’ dying wish.”

“You have discovered the way to destroy it?” Kreacher asked, his eyes were wider than I would have thought possible.

“Yes, several ways, actually, it’s just that all of them are dangerous or difficult to reach.” I said.

“And you are needing transport?” He asked.

“Yes. We can’t apparate into Hogwarts, it’s enchanted, protected.” I explained.

Kreacher thought for a moment, “Kreacher could do it.”

“Do what?” Draco asked.

“Apparate into Hogwarts. All house elves can do it, the wizards magical protections has no effect on Kreacher.” He said, and was that pride in his voice?

“Huh. I suppose it works to our advantage, wizards underestimating other species.” I said, a smile tugging at the corner of my lips. “Can we go now?” I asked, plucking up the Marauder’s Map from my nightstand and returning to the center of the room.

“Of course, Kreacher can take you.” Said Kreacher.

At the same time, Draco said, “I don’t see why not.”

“Let’s get on with it then.” I said, not wishing to waste another second. Kreacher took my hand in his own and I took Draco’s. I hated the feeling of apparating, just as I hated using the floo network and portkeys. But it was over with quickly and then we were in the kitchens of Hogwarts. I cracked my neck and took a moment to let the nausea pass. “Why are we in the kitchen?” I asked.

“It is the only part of Hogwarts that Kreacher has ever been to before.” Kreacher said.

“Right then, Kreacher, could you wait here for us, we’ll be back in a bit.” I said.

“Yes, Miss.” He said, nodding solemnly. Wow, maybe he didn’t hate me after all.

I unfolded the map. It was emptier than I had ever seen it before. I chalked that up to the fact that no one was here. It was still odd though, not having all of those little people moving around. Hagrid was on the grounds, just outside of his hut, Professor Trelawney was in her tower, Madam Pomfrey was in the hospital wing, we were in the kitchens and that seemed to be everyone. “Alright, let’s go.” I said to Draco.

Together we left the kitchen, doing our best to avoid the swarming house elves as we went. The path was clear to Moaning Myrtle’s bathroom, but I had a bad feeling as we made our way through the empty corridors. It wasn’t until we were just outside the bathroom that I noticed what was amiss. Moaning Myrtle was gone. I searched the entire castle. She was no where to be found, nor were any of the other ghosts. I whirled around, every portrait lining the walls was empty too. What the hell was this?

“Emma, what is it?” Draco asked.

“I don’t know.” I said, slowly. “This place is just so empty. I just assumed that the ghosts stayed here for the summer, but they are all gone. So is everyone from the portraits, it’s just a bit odd, don’t you think?”

“Huh,” He said, looking around. “I guess I didn’t notice.”

“Oh well. Let’s just get this over with.” I said and strode into the bathroom.

‘Open for us.’ I said in Parseltongue to the sinks. Slowly they slid apart, revealing the long pipe from which the Basilisk had come. “Are you ready?” I asked.

“Ready as I’ll ever be.” He said, tucking the locket into his pocket. Together, we leapt into the darkness beyond.

The tunnel seemed quicker the second time around and we were to the bottom in no time at all. We crept through, jumping at every noise, though they all just turned out to be the scurrying of rats over the shedded skin and bones. In the back of my mind, I wondered if any of those rats were Peter. Now was not the time to worry about that, and even so, I doubted he would dare venture into this particular part of the castle.

We reached the main chamber and there, before us, was the stone sculpture of Salazar Slytherin’s head, neck and shoulders. His mouth was still opened, a shadow making it impossible to see what lay within. But that was not the focus of today. We were here for the Basilisk fangs.

Draco was already walking towards it’s remains, it’s flesh was gone, leaving only the pearly white bones of its skeleton. He tore a long fang from the upper jaw and pulled out the locket. Carefully, he set it down upon the floor and poised the fang to strike.

‘Open.’ I hissed. Something began to happen then, aside from the locket opening. It did something that it hadn’t done before. It began to glow a bright emerald green. The stone depiction of the locket that hung around Salazar’s neck began to do the same. And then the light encompassed the whole chamber and I was temporarily blinded.


	5. The Second Chamber

Slowly, my sight began to return to me. The stone locket had slid open, just as its counterpart.

“Kill it, Draco!” I screamed. For, things were beginning to swirl out of it. But, for some reason, he hesitated. “Draco, do it now!”But still, he did nothing. “Draco!” Was he under some kind of trance or spell?

The smoke figures of Harry and I were beginning to take shape now. But still something else was emerging, something thicker, more solid looking, long and bright. They began to align within the stone locket and then was when it all began to make sense. It was a staircase.

I watched as each step solidified within the locket. Finally they had all taken up their places, leaving only the smoke versions of Harry and I in their wake. Draco wasted no more time and stabbed the locket. A horrid screaming erupted from within it, and it began to bleed out a black smoke, before everything went silent and the air cleared. The horcrux was gone, dead.

I picked up Salazar Slytherin’s locket, now nothing more than a destroyed relic. “It worked.” I said in a hushed voice. Draco and I stepped towards the stone locket’s entrance in unison, as though we were drawn to it. I stepped on to the first stair and it lit up, brightening the path ahead. With each step I descended, more light filled the cavern. I could hear Draco, a few steps behind me.

After a few minutes the stairs began to become less steep. And then they ended altogether. We came upon a large chamber bathed in torchlight. “Where the hell are we?” I asked as we came upon a grand looking green and silver door with emerald and gold accents.

“I don’t know, but I think it was something to do with you speaking Parseltongue in the chamber with the locket present. It was likely something Salazar designed for his descendants. I mean think about it, he probably thought that’s only they would know about the chamber to begin with. One of them would have his locket, passed down through the generations. And no one else can speak Parseltongue. You and Harry are anomalies.”

Harry and I were anomalies. Yes, that much was true. But I had learned it, I doubted anyone else had tried to do that. But Harry... nothing explained his ability to do it.

“Alohomora.” I tried, but nothing happened, no surprise there. “Right well, would it be too obvious for it to be Parseltongue again?” I asked.

“I don’t know, give it a try.” Draco said with a shrug.

‘Open,’ I hissed. Nothing. I knew that trick would only work so many times. “What now?”

“Pick the lock?” Draco suggested.

“Be my guest, if you know how to do that.” I laughed.

“Oh, er, no, I don’t. How about we kick it in then.”

I laughed at him again, “Go on then.” He took a running start and shoved his entire body into the door. It didn’t so much as shake. He tried again... and again.

“Okay, new plan.” He said, panting, “Let’s find the key.” I raised my brows and he gave a ‘this will work’ look in return. “Accio key.”

I turned away, not wanting to watch him fail.I examined the door and ran my hand over it, trying to find any secrets it might possess. I found absolutely nothing, it was perfectly smooth. Out of frustration and as a last resort, I knocked.

Behind me, Draco burst out laughing. “Did you seriously just knock?”

I rounded on him, “Well I don’t see you opening it.”

“Actually...” He held up a small golden key with a skull, a snake protruding from its mouth, emerald gems forming its eyes.

“What the hell?” I asked.

“It was in the locket.”

“Of course it was.” I sighed. “Well go on then.”

“Hang on a minute.” Draco’s forehead was was creased with worry. “Emma, do you really think that this is a good idea? I mean, anything could be behind that door, it could be dangerous, deadly even. If the Basilisk was behind the first secret entrance, do you really want to know what’s behind the second one?”

“It could be some sort of weapon, Draco. We could use it to defeat Voldemort. The Basilisk could be controlled by a Parselmouth, perhaps what’s behind this door abides by the same laws.” I said, but even so, my confidence wavered. What if there was something powerful behind that door, something we weren’t strong enough to defeat or control? “Whatever it is, someone, probably Salazar Slytherin himself, wanted it to be protected. So it’s probably something very special indeed.”

“I don’t think this is a very good idea,” Draco said.

“Come on, it will be fine, I promise.” I said.

“Fine, but step back then.” He insisted. I did as he had asked and readied my wand.

He stepped forward and slid the key in with a loud click. The knob turned and the door opened. Golden torchlight filled the chamber beyond the moment we stepped inside. I turned to look at him and our eyes met for a moment before we turned away to take in our surroundings. We were in a hallway, at the end of which there was another door, identical to the door we had just gone through.

“I swear,” I said as we advanced upon it, “If we need another fucking key...”

But the door opened without a trace of difficulty, the picture of ease.

And I knew, this was the end, this was where we had been trying to go this entire time.

It was the most luxurious place I had ever been in. It was filled with the most ornate things I had ever seen. Plush sofas and armchairs, antique chairs and a beautiful table. The kitchen was simply to die for, I could see the beauty of it, despite my inability to cook. I could have sworn that the rug alone was worth more than everything in Harry and I’s vault.

There was an entire mansion down here and to top it all off everything was in perfect condition. The floor plan was lovely and open, giving the illusion that we weren’t underground at all. I could see everything, from the sitting room, to the kitchen, to the dining room. There was an office and a parlor too, a library. Everything. There was a door on the opposite end of the house that I was sure led to a bedroom and bathroom.

Immediately I strode over to the library. Whatever books were down here were surely incredibly old and filled with useful information. Perhaps there was something else down here about horcruxes.

I stroked my finger across the spines, looking for any titles of interest or possible use. I had never seen the likes of any of these authors before, nor titles like these. This was old, forgotten magic, banished to the depths of those minds who knew it, until it died out completely. These could very well be the only copies of these books in existence.

I was just about to pluck one from the shelf when Draco called, “Emma, you’ve got to come see this.”

“What is it?” I asked, not wanting to leave the shelf without finding something of use.

“Come here, now!” He called again and this time the urgency rang out in his voice, so I knew it was serious.

“What?” I asked in a rushed breath as I hurried to his side.

He was staring at the stove, where a kettle filled half with tea sat. I reached out my shaking hand and pressed it against the side. “Still warm.” I muttered.

And there, in the dining room, was set a place, complete with a plate, glass, knife, fork, spoon, bowl and napkin, just waiting for someone to whisk food onto it.

“Draco... do you think...” I trailed off.

“Yeah... someone’s been living down here.” He finished for me and I noticed that he was trembling ever so slightly too.

Behind us, a floorboard creaked. I whipped around, wand raised, prepared for an attack. An attack that never came. Instead, a cat sat, in the center of the floor, staring at us with his yellow eyes that gleamed in the light.

Draco lowered his wand. “Wait,” I hissed, “Don’t!”

“What? Why? It’s a bloody cat.” He said.

“Draco think for a moment. What am I? What are you? What is Pettigrew and Sirius and McGonagall? What was my father?” I pressed.

“An animagus.” He breathed and his wand returned to its previous spot, aimed and poised to strike.

“Exactly.” I said. “Esse Humines.” Nothing happened. Only then did I lower my wand. “It’s okay. Just a cat.”

Draco sighed in relief and lowered his own wand to his side. “Maybe whoever lives here isn’t home, or perhaps a house elf is living here.” He suggested.

“Even so, we had better be quick.” I said. “I’m just going to take a quick look at those books again.” I nearly ran back to the bookshelves lining the walls.

One of the books stuck out to me. All of the others were thick, leather bound things, brown and gold. But this one was small, barely a quarter of the size and a navy blue. I carefully slid it from its companions. That’s when I realized, it was letters. I flipped through the pages and noticed something very quickly. They all were addressed to ‘Sal’. There were three different handwritings present. I looked to the valedictions and found them to be ‘Rowen,’ ‘Ric’ and ‘Helena.’

I took in the color scheme of the house, how we had gotten here, these letters and everything began to click at once.

“Salazar Slytherin.” I whispered, more to myself than anything else.

“Ah, so you’ve found me.” Said a voice.


	6. Promises and Secrets

I whipped around and standing there, in the flesh, was Salazar Slytherin himself. “How?” Was all I managed to get out.

“How have I made the tea, or how have I put the letters into the book?” He asked. “Quite rude, by the way, reading other people’s private letters.”

“I didn’t read them,” I said defensively, “Just the valedictions and salutations.”

“Oh, well that makes it so much better.” He said.

“I meant, how are you alive?” I corrected myself, “You’ve got to be nearly one thousand years old at this point.”

“Ah, well that my dear is something that came with a terrible cost.”

“See, I never liked the whole horcruxes bit, wanted to keep all of my soul with me, so I needed to find another way. I was one hundred and... thirty-four, no, thirty-five. I knew the end was near, but I was worried, I could see a corruption beginning to form in my great grandson. My son was smart, brilliant and... neglectful. I’m sure you know what that can do to a person. So, I found a way to tie my life to the chamber. And I built this place to live out my days, watching over my bloodline. I hoped the corrupt would die out, but it only grew and grew. I saw a chance with Merope... but then, the poor girl, she had to go and use that love potion. And Voldemort was born.”

“Merope was his mother then? He was born from a love potion, that’s why he is the way he is... he can’t love!” I said, the pieces clicking together within my mind.

“Clever girl.” Salazar Slytherin said.

“Wait, so you’ve been able to see things that are happening, outside of this chamber?”

“Yes.”

“Does that mean you know what Voldemort turned into horcruxes?” I asked, excitement filling me.

“Not entirely. I have means of seeing things beyond this chamber, but I cannot see everything. He has a snake, Nagini, who he turned into one, I do know that. And there is this family ring we have, that has also been made into one. It is hidden in the old Gaunt family shack. Dumbledore is close to finding that one, and I’m sure he suspects the snake. There is something you should know, the ring bares a terrible curse. If worn, it will kill you, I wouldn’t even touch it if I were you.”

“What the hell?” Draco had just entered the library. “Are you...? But... its not possible.”

“In fact it is possible... and I am Salazar Slytherin.” Slytherin said. He was not at all how I had imagined him. I had pictured him to be a severe man, focused entirely on getting what he wanted. And while it was clear that Slytherin was trying to achieve something by telling me about the horcruxes, his intentions didn’t seem to be utterly self serving. He seemed as though he genuinely wanted to help me. Not to mention the fact that this man was jovial, downright cheery.

“Draco,” I said, “He knows about the horcruxes, he knows what some of them are. There is a ring, the Gaunt family ring, inside their old shack, and its cursed but we needn’t touch it to destroy it. And then there’s his snake, Nagini.” I turned to Slytherin. “Do you know how many he has made, in total?”

“I know he always intended in splitting his soul into seven pieces, as seven is the most magically powerful number. One part resides in his body, so if he has made all of his horcruxes, I do believe there are six.” Slytherin replied.

“Okay, so the diary, Harry got that one. And then we got the locket. There’s the snake and the ring. That leaves two others. Then of course there is Voldemort himself.” I said.

“Have you any ideas as to what the last two could be?” Asked Draco.

Slytherin shook his head. “There was a period of time in which I was utterly cut off from the world and I fear that was when those two were created. See, I already know that he made the locket during the time I missed because I saw him hide it and I saw Regulus Black take it. But he could have made others too. To make a horcrux you must kill someone, and he did a lot of killing in that time. But there are blind spots too, in what I can see.”

“Does anyone know that you’re alive?” I asked.

“Yes, three people. You, Draco, and... Brian Gagwilde.” He said.

“Who?” I asked.

“He was the first headmaster of Hogwarts. When it was turned into a school in the eleventh century.” Draco explained.

“Wait, Hogwarts didn’t start out as a school?” I asked.

“No, it began as a private resistance for adult witches and wizards. They were sorted into the four houses and taught by the corresponding teacher. They learned different things based on their interests and goals. It was turned into a school after all of the founders were dead, or rather presumed to be dead.”

“That wasn’t in Hogwarts a History!” I said.

“All the same, it is correct.” Slytherin said, looking impressed. “Yes, Brian was a good friend of mine, my protégé would probably be more accurate though. He helped me fake my death and I helped him carry out his goal of turning Hogwarts into a school for the magically gifted. He is dead now, but his portrait remains in the Headmaster’s office. So everything Dumbledore knows, he knows too and therefore, I also know. He has hundreds of portraits spying for him across the continent. They’re really spying for me of course, but they don’t know that.”

“So what, you’ve just been living down here for the past eight hundred years? That’s seems rather... lonely.” I said.

“I suppose it has been a tad lonesome. But I’ve had my cats and Brian, or his portrait, and all of those books to keep myself busy.”

“But don’t you... I don’t know, miss your family, your friends?” Draco asked.

“Of course I do, but I can’t go yet, not until I’m sure the Slytherin line is back on track and you know... not evil.”

“Does that mean that you’re going to help us defeat Voldemort?” I asked.

“Indeed.” Salazar said.

“Brilliant.” Draco grinned. “Voldemort doesn’t stand a chance.” It didn’t slip my notice that it was the first time Draco had ever said his name.

“We need to make it as easy for your brother as possible. Destroying all of the horcruxes for him is the very best thing we can do.” Salazar said.

“What do you mean, for my brother?” I asked.

“Well the prophecy of course, he’s the only one who can defeat Voldemort.” Salazar said, as though it was the most obvious thing in the entire world.

“What prophecy?” I asked, punctuating every word.

“Really?” He asked, bewildered. “You really have no idea what I’m talking about?”

“Not a clue.” I said, looking to Draco, he shook his head in confusion.

“Hang on,” Slytherin said, bustling over to a large desk and opening the drawers one at a time. He pulled out a scrap of parchment and read off the prophecy to us.

“The one with the power to vanquish the Dark Lord approaches… Born to those who have thrice defied him, born as the seventh month dies… And the dark Lord will mark him as his equal, but he will have power the Dark Lord knows not… And either must die at the hands of the other for neither can live while the other survives… The one with the power to vanquish the dark Lord will be born as the seventh month dies.” Slytherin read out. “Sybil Trelawney made that prophecy before your brother was born. Severus Snape overheard they beginning of it, but was caught and kicked out before he could hear the ending. He went back to Voldemort and told him of what he had heard. Several babies fit the criteria, but Voldemort chose your brother, marked him as your equal, went after him, and killed your parents.”

“Snape told him?” I asked and my voice wavered.

Salazar nodded.

“So... if Snape had never told Voldemort anything, my parents would still be alive?”

“Yes, I believe they would be.”

***

We ended up being gone for much longer than we should have been, and it didn’t escape Sirius and Remus’ notice. By the time we had returned Draco and I were starving. We had been gone for nearly the entire day and had nothing to eat the entire time. Salazar had given us a portrait of Brain Gagwilde though, so we could communicate with him whenever we needed to.

Kreacher had disapparated us directly into Regulus’ old room. He had been overjoyed that the wand was gone. So overjoyed in fact that the second we had returned home he had begun to clean, something that he hadn’t done in months.

From outside our bedroom, we could hear arguing. “She’s not in the house, Remus! She, she could be anywhere! She could be dead, the death eaters could have taken her! We have to find her!”

“Sirius, I know, and we will. Snape wouldn’t let anything happen to her.”

“Yes but, do you really think Voldemort tells him everything, he might have no idea that they’ve got her!”

“Then let’s call him, tell him that she and Draco are gone and he can see if the death eaters have them.”

Draco and I burst from the room. “We’re okay, we’re fine!” I said.

“Emma!” Sirius breathed, his expression contorting into a mixture of relief and anger. He hugged me tight and then began to scream. “You can’t just go off like that! We had no idea where you were, if you were even alive!”

“I’m sorry!” I cried, “I didn’t think that we would be gone for so long. I’m sorry I didn’t tell you, but I didn’t think you would let us go.”

“You’re damn right, I wouldn’t have let you leave! It is too dangerous out there. And you’re a kid, Emma. You’re both kids! You cannot be out there by yourself, not with all of the death eaters running about! I thought you were smarter than this! How could you be so stupid?!”

“That’s enough Sirius.” Remus said, softly, placing a hand on his shoulder. “They’re alright. Why don’t you go take a walk, I’ll talk to them.” Sirius hesitated for a moment before he turned and walked away.

“What were you two doing?” Remus asked.

Now it was my turn to hesitate, I opened my mouth and closed it again. I turned to Draco and our eyes met. We hadn’t discussed the cover story.

“Er-” I began.

“Alright you can stop right there, because I already know that you’re going to lie and I don’t need to hear any of those.” Remus said sternly. “Just tell me, whatever you did, would it have been worth it if it had cost you your lives?”

I thought of Regulus’ sacrifice. He had died to steal that and now we had carried out his final wish. Not only that, but we had destroyed a piece of Voldemort’s soul and found out what and where two other pieces were. And we had made a powerful ally in Salazar Slytherin. I knew my answer, “Yes, yes it was most certainly worth it.”

That had not been the answer he was expecting, he looked rather taken aback. Even more so when Draco nodded in agreement. “What, how could anything be worth your life?”

“I’m sorry, Remus, I really am. But, I cannot tell you.”

“Why not?”

“This is bigger than me, this is bigger than all of us! I’m just trying to make sure everyone survives.”

“Emma, that is an impossible task, far too great of a burden for you too bare. You cannot expect that of yourself, no one is that strong.”

I sighed, “I know, but if I can do something to prevent even a single unnecessary death, I have to try.”

“I know.” Remus said, sighing as well. “Go get something to eat, you must be starving. And Draco, if you don’t want to be discovered, I would suggest going back to your room.”

“Too late.” It was Fred and George.

“Fred! George!” I said, “I can explain-”

“I think it’s pretty obvious, don’t you George?” Said Fred.

“Seems pretty obvious to me, Fred.” George responded.

“You told Malfoy your secret.” Fred said.

“And you don’t want Harry to know that he knows.” George added.

“So you’re hiding the fact that he’s here.” Fred continued.

“Because it would dredge up far too many questions.” George finished

“Oh, yeah, that pretty much covers it.” I said. “Please don’t tell Harry.”

Fred shrugged, “Tell Harry what?”

“Yeah, Emma, I simply have no idea what you’re talking about.” George said.

I grinned at them both, “You’re the best.” I turned to Draco and said, “I’ll go get us something to eat.”

I hurried down the stairs and into the kitchen, to find the most delicious looking meal I had ever seen waiting for me. Kreacher was standing proudly beside it, with Sirius gaping down at him.

“Oh Kreacher, did you do all of this?”

“Oh yes Miss. Emma, for you and Mr. Draco.” Kreacher said.

“You didn’t have to do this.” I said.

“I wanted to, as thanks for finishing Master Regulus’ dying act.”

“What did you say?” Asked Sirius. “My brother died trying to run!”

“No he didn’t.” I breathed, barely audible. “He died stealing something that Voldemort needed. We were gone, because we went to destroy it and we did. It’s gone.”

“No, no, Regulus was a death eater and a coward!”

“Not in the end, he wasn’t. Sirius, I know this is hard to understand, but you have to believe me.”

“No, this is insane Emma. Where were you today? What did you do?”

“I can’t tell you.” I hissed.

“Tell me or I’m calling Dumbledore.”

“No.”

He moved towards the fireplace, reached for the floo powder and- “Stupefy!” Sirius collapsed onto the ground. “Kreacher, we have to keep this a secret, he can’t understand, not yet, no one can. Obliviate. And now, he won’t remember that this ever happened. You have to promise me that you won’t tell him, promise me, Kreacher.”

“Kreacher promises.”


	7. Tick Tock

After the next Order meeting, Molly invited everyone to stay for dinner. Dumbledore had other business to attend to. As did the majority of the others. But Kingsley, Bill, Charlie, Tonks and the newest Order member, her fiancé, a Slytherin with dark skin and dreadlocks down to his elbows called Taleus Abillot, all stayed. Snape stood and made some vague excuse to leave, when I stopped him.

“I know about the prophecy.” I hissed. 

“What?” His face grew several shades whiter.

“I know you told Voldemort about the prophecy involving my brother.” I said.

“Emma-” He tried.

“Hang on, I’m not finished.” I said. “I’m not mad. It was a long time ago anyway.” I knew he wasn’t that person anymore, he had made the right decision, come over to the good side. And if Regulus had been any indication, death eaters weren’t all black and white.

***

Dumbledore had stopped to give us our supply lists, he’d discretely slipped me Draco’s too. Upon opening them, Draco and I discovered that we had both been made Prefects. Hermione had too of course. But to our surprise, the other Gryffindor Prefect was not Harry, but Ron.

I couldn’t understand it, Ron was so... well, Ron. And Ron didn’t exactly fit the bill. 

***

It wasn’t until a week later that Salazar contacted us through Brian Gagwilde. He wanted us to come back his underground home as soon as we could, apparently he had something he wanted to teach us.

“How the hell are we supposed to sneak out again?” Draco asked. “They’ll kill us.”

“Only if we get caught.”

“Ooo, you guys are sneaking out again? But Prefects are supposed to abide by the rules, just ask Percy.” Asked Fred, waltzing into our room. George was right on his heels.

“Yeah, you wanna help?” I asked.

At the same time, Draco said, “We aren’t kind of Prefect.”

The twins turned to each other and exchanged a silent conversation. “Sure.” Fred said with a shrug. “So, where exactly is it that you two are sneaking off to?”

“None of your business.” I said.

“Well, if we’re going to help you...” George said.

“Then we ought to know.” Fred finished.

“No. You can either help us without knowing or we can do it on our own.”

“Fine.” Fred said glowering. 

“Okay, so just cover for us until we get back.” I said.

“And what’s our cover story?” Asked George.

“I don’t know, just make something up.” I said.

They looked at each other again.

“You’re going to need to do better than that.”

“Okay, I don’t feel well and want to be left alone.” I said.

“Boring.” George grumbled but they left the room nonetheless.

***

“You want to teach us Occlumency and Legilimency?” I asked, surprised.

“Yes, I’ve been thinking and I can’t have people being able to look into your minds and seeing that I’m alive. Plus, you don’t want one of the death eaters being able to tell just how much you know. So, I’ll give you a basic understanding and then the two of you can practice together.”

“So you want us to learn Legilimency just so we can practice together?” I asked.

“Well that and it is a very effective way to communicate with one another when you’re unable to speak.” Salazar explained. “If you get really good at then you’ll be able to speak into each other’s minds.” 

“Really? I never read that in any of my books!” I exclaimed.

“Yeah well, most people don’t try to get that far, because they don’t realize they can, but Rowena, Helena, Godric and I used to do it all the time. It drove everyone else crazy, but we loved it.” 

“Do you think we can get to that level?” Draco asked.

“From what I know about the two of you, I would say yes. You became animagus on your first try as a thirteen year old and a fourteen year old. If you could do that, then you can definitely do this too. It really isn’t as hard as people make it out to be.” Salazar said cheerfully. “So what would you like to start with? Legilimency or Occlumency?”

“Occlumency.” Draco and I said in unison. 

“Alright.” Salazar said, “So, who wants to try first?”

I looked at Draco and he looked back at me. “I’ll go first.” He said.

“Okay, so I’m going to try and look into your mind. To start, I won’t try very hard and then we’ll work our way up to blocking me completely. And I’ll teach you how to read minds too.”

“Read minds? I thought Legilimency was just extracting singular emotions and memories, I didn’t think we could actually read thoughts.” I said.

Salazar sighed. “Witches and wizards are so limited these days, they think things are impossible, so they don’t even try. We can read minds, you can read minds, if you work at it. Now, Draco, you will not be able to feel me looking in your mind, but still, try to close it. Imagine building up walls around your thoughts, hide them away from me, if you can.”

The two stared at each other for a few moments and then Salazar said, “That was a good try, but perhaps you took my meaning a bit to literal. See, you thought about a wall, which did keep me from seeing your other thoughts, yes, but that only works if you are constantly thinking about that wall. Which, of course, is not maintainable. Once you get good at this, that wall will remain without you even having to think about it. Emma, why don’t you give it a try?”

So, I tried and failed. Draco tried again and failed again. I did the same. But then, on Draco’s third try something happened. Salazar smiled, “Well there you go, that was something. I still got in, but I had to push, that’s progress, let’s go again.” Salazar tried with Draco five more times, until he was satisfied that Draco could hold up a minimum wall. 

Then it was back to my turn. I turned out to be much worse at this than Draco was. But after fourteen tries, I managed to reach the level Draco was at. 

We went back and forth for another hour or so until both of us had it down. Then we moved on to Legilimency. I turned out to be much better at breaking into other people’s minds than I was at guarding my own. Salazar had us practice with each other, since our barriers were much easier to breach than his. 

After three hours spent in Salazar’s underground mansion, the both of us were adequate enough at both Occlumency and Legilimency to go home and practice with each other. Salazar would have Brian notify us as to when the next meeting would be. 

We ran through the castle, skidding around corners until we made it back to the kitchen where Kreacher was waiting. We had been careless, not bothering to check the map in our haste, but luckily we encountered no one. “Kreacher!” I called. “Sorry we took so long, can you dispparate us directly into Draco and I’s room?”

“Of course Kreacher can, miss.” Kreacher said, taking our hands. Then we were back in our room and Kreacher disappeared, likely off to the kitchen. I still hadn’t gotten over the feeling of moving through space, and in the rush of that, my stomach churned unpleasantly. 

Outside the door, I could hear Fred and George talking to Sirius. “I haven’t seen her in hours!” Sirius said. “Has she gone and snuck out again?”

“No, she isn’t feeling well.” Fred said. “Something with her stomach, I think. She didn’t want to be bothered.”

Sirius scoffed, “That is the oldest trick in the book and rather unbelievable. You forget, I was a teenager once.”

He burst through my bedroom door, just as I threw up all over the floor.

“Told you.” Fred said, peering in over Sirius’ shoulder. George sniggered behind his back. 

“Alright, that’s enough, give her some space.” Sirius said as Draco spelled away the bile. 

“Sorry,” I mumbled, wiping my mouth with the back of my wrist. 

“No, I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have burst in.” Sirius said. “How long have you felt sick?”

“I don’t know, all day, I guess, and it doesn’t feel like it’s going away anytime soon.” Even as I said the words, I felt the nausea clearing. I had merely disapparated too fast, nothing serious. 

***

Draco and I spent the entire rest of the summer hiding from my brother. Hermione and Ginny found out that he was hiding in my room in mid July, but Harry and Ron never found out and I was glad for it. 

I attended all of the Order of the Phoenix meetings, but I could sense them speaking in codes throughout the whole thing, managing to withhold information from us even while making intricate plans. I did gather that there was something in the Ministry of Magic that they were guarding from Voldemort and his death eaters, something that Voldemort desperately wanted.

He had gotten many of the escaped death eaters thrown back into Azkaban by ordering them to try and steal it. But I knew all of those death eaters would just be broken out again. Voldemort controlled the dementors, a fact which Cornelius Fudge still refused to believe. Despite all of the evidence to suggest it, Fudge did not think Voldemort was back. He was such an utter imbecile that it hurt.

Draco and I had mastered Occlumency and Legilimency. We had even begun to speak into each other’s minds, it was quiet sure, like a whisper, barely audible, but it was there all the same. We really had learned from the best. We had been able to go to Salazar’s mansion three more times before school started. It looked slightly different every time, as though it changed to match his every whim, which it very well could have been. 

Kreacher had done a full one-eighty. He had been cooking and cleaning, dusting, sweeping, mopping and I had even caught him whistling once. On several occasions, Sirius had accused me of murdering Kreacher and replacing him with a different elf entirely. Hermione was overjoyed that he was expressing happiness, but upset that he was showing it in the aforementioned manner. She had hoped he would ask for freedom or something.

A part of me felt guilty, after all, I agreed with Hermione. I wanted freedom for the house elves too... just not yet. He was helping to kill Voldemort, destroy those pieces of his soul. And I needed Kreacher, just until Voldemort was gone.

A few days before we were to board the train going to Hogwarts, Sirius asked me, “So, what do you do when you’re cooped up in your room all day?”

I shrugged, “I may or may not have gone a little overboard on my homework.” 

Sirius raised his eyebrows, “You’ve been doing homework all of this time?”

“Well no, I’ve been reading and getting ahead on things for the year, you know we have our O.W.L.S. this year and I intend on getting outstandings on all of them. Been learning about things that are not taught at Hogwarts too. And taking care of my babies. Honey is getting pretty restless, I think she’s ready to go back to the school.” I said.

“And are you ready to go back?” Sirius asked.

“I don’t know, it will definitely be nice to see my friends, but everything is so uncertain, with Blaise and his mother.” Blaise had never responded to the letter we had written him, leading us to believe the very worst. But still, some part of me hoped he would be alright and turn up to school with the rest of us. We had kept in contact with everyone else over the summer. Neville, Daphne, Tracey, Pansy, Millicent, Theo, Luna, Cho, who often had tear stains on her letters, and Narcissa. We hadn’t told Narcissa anything that had to do with the Order, we didn’t want to put her in that kind of position, but we checked in, she knew we were alright and we knew she was. “And Voldemort out there, with the ministry none the wiser.”

“You could stay here, you know, if you don’t feel safe going back.” Sirius offered. I knew he wasn’t just offering for me. He would be lonely once we all left.

“Sirius, I would love to, but I can’t just leave my friends, I’m sorry.” I whispered.

“No, I get it, Em. Of course you’ve got to go back, it was stupid of me to even suggest it.” Sirius said, waving it away. But I didn’t miss his look of disappointment.

***

“Before you go,” I said to Dumbledore, the last Order meeting before school started was coming to an end, “Do you know who the new Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher is going to be?”

“No, the Ministry felt it was better for me to find out when everyone else did.” He said, a hint of disdain in his voice.

“What idiots.” I scoffed.

***

It was rainy, so very rainy, on the train ride back to Hogwarts. And our moods were bitter to match. Draco and I failed to abide by our prefect duties of patrolling the express and sitting in the Prefect’s compartment. Instead we sat with the other Slytherins in our year.

Blaise still had not made his reappearance, if he would ever make one. No one had heard from him since he had split up with Draco, but Millicent’s dad was in the ministry and they had found Nazim’s body, torn to shreds in a ditch. Tracey’s dad had speculated that a werewolf, Greyback, had done it. I was inclined to agree, after all, he was the werewolf that turned a child Remus into a werewolf to get back at his parents. 

Tracey’s mum and Daphne’s dad were going into hiding. Tracey’s mum was muggleborn and Daphne’s dad was a blood traitor, making both of them targets.

Everything was a mess. An utter and complete mess.


	8. When the Losses Begin But the Battle Hasn’t Started

When we were getting off the train, in the pouring rain, I bumped into Cho. Literally crashed right into her. I couldn’t tell if it was the rain on her face, or if she was crying. Either way, I wasn’t surprised. Her boyfriend was dead and if something were to happen to Draco... then yeah, I would be the same way.

“Hey... Cho, how are you doing? I know this must be so hard for you.” I said.

To my surprise, she smiled at me. “I’m trying to be hopeful, you know? My mom was really sick, for like three years, but she’s better now. She made a miraculous recovery... and no one knows how. But I think it was Cedric, looking out for me, us. And Marietta has been really helpful, of course, she’s been here for me through everything.”

“I’m glad about your mom, and Marietta, but look Cho, if you ever need anything, literally anything, don’t hesitate to ask, I’m here for you.” I gave her what I hoped was a reassuring smile, before walking to join my friends in a carriage.

I sat in the corner, and the moment I had settled myself, Pansy groaned and leaned her head against me. “Oh my god, I am such a bad friend!” I exclaimed. “I haven’t even asked you, are you okay?”

“Yeah, no, I’m good, Em. Really. I’m good. Just tired and sick of he rain.” She whispered.

“Okay.”

It would seem that I couldn’t properly console anyone.

***

Dolores Umbridge quickly became the bane of my existence. The first class with her as my Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher was dreadful. Faster than I thought possible, I already hated her. Maybe even more than I hated Voldemort. It was hard to tell these days.

I was headed to my third class with her for the year and trying to convince Draco and Daph to skip with me. Neither of them were having it though. “Emma, yeah, we get it, she sucks, but that doesn’t mean we can just ditch, she’d be out for our heads.” Draco reasoned.

I massaged my temples, “Yeah I know, I just don’t think I can take anymore of this.”

“Come on, Em. You’ve been to two classes, just give it one last try, okay?”

I groaned, “Fine, but if I die or annoyance... or boredom for that matter, it’s your fault.” I stalked into the classroom, a scowl already plastered onto my face.

“Wands away,” She sang out, but no one had bothered with their wands anyways, so no one moved. “Today we will be reading Chapter five, so open up your books and get going.” She sat down at her desk and began grading essays.

I yawned and tipped my chair back, kicking my feet up onto my desk. I hadn’t even bothered to take out my book, I had already read the chapter so many times over the summer.

“Miss. Evans, I very clearly stated that we are reading chapter five now, get out your book.”

“No point.” I said with a shrug, “I’ve already read it.”

“Well read it again.”

“I’ve read it a bunch of times, I can remember everything.”

“I find that rather hard to believe.” She sniffed.

I tipped my chair forward with a clank and planted my feet firmly on the ground. “What, do you want me to quote it back to you?” I hissed. “Because I can.”

“Detention, I think, Miss. Evans.” She said, “Now read chapter five, I will not ask you again.”

“This is ridiculous!” I burst, “How are we meant to learn anything practical?”

“You have no need for that sort of thing.” Umbridge lilted.

“Really? Are you really that daft? Voldemort is back and sending his death eaters out to either recruit or kill! We have to be prepared! People are already dying or has that slipped your notice? All of the death eaters have been broken out of prison, Grindelwald is gone, out there somewhere and you don’t see the need for practical lessons?”

“Another detention, I think, now sit down before it becomes three.” I did not sit down.

To my surprise, Pansy stood up. “Notice how there are only nineteen students here and not twenty. That’s because Voldemort went after him and his mother! They found his mother dead, he’s still missing! Cedric Diggory was murdered by Voldemort, Potter saw it happen, and now, people are dying, missing, going into hiding, joining up with the death eaters, left and right, and nobody is doing anything about it! Least of all you.”

“A detention for you too, Miss. Parkinson.” Umbridge said softly, the anger finally finding it’s way into her voice. “Mr. Potter is a liar, seeking more fame and attention than he already has by spreading false rumors. It will not be tolerated!”

Harry stood up. “He is back, he killed Cedric and he tried to kill me!”

“Detention! Mr. Potter!”

Theo stood up. “My father is a death eater.” Umbridge stared at him, her face white. He pulled a letter from his bag before continuing. “He wrote me a letter, just after the prison break. I showed it to the Ministry, but they didn’t believe me.” He cleared his throat. “Dear, Theodore. The Dark Lord has returned, he is back more powerful than ever before. I really think we can do it this time, take over the ministry, take over the world even. We’ll clear out the Mudbloods and the blood traitors, purify blood lines and put the muggles in their place. He broke me out of Azkaban and he has great plans for us, for you. He has offered you the greatest of honors, the privilege to become a death eater. This is everything I have ever wanted for this family.” Theo folded the envelope back up and slipped it into his pocket.

“The ministry demised that because it is fake!” Umbridge hissed. “And you will be joining this little party in detention.”

Hermione stood up, “That is unequivocal evidence to the contrary of your claim! And yet you are so naive as to tell us that Voldemort is dead!”

“Detention!”

“Right then.” I said. “I’m out.” I grabbed up my bag and strode towards the door.

“I don’t think so. Colloportus.” The door slammed shut before me with a loud bang.

I rounded her, my wand raised and spat, “Seems as though we will be having a practical lesson after all. Harry?”

He moved to my side. The other Gryffindors stood and joined him. The Slytherins joined my side. “I’m beginning to think that we should have just skipped.” Draco hissed in my ear, but he was grinning.

“Everyone return to your seats immediately or I will have you all expelled! You are already facing detentions, banning from Hogsmeade and Quidditch, do not make this worse for yourselves!” She threatened, moving her wand back and forth to point at each of us in turn.

I took a step forward. “You’re not going to do any of that.” I said, crossing my arms.

“Do not underestimate me-” She shouted.

I cut her off, “Stupefy!”

She didn’t react fast enough, so before she could complete her shield charm, she was already on the ground, knocked unconscious. I gestured to her, “See, prime example right there of what happens to someone when they do not receive practical lessons in Defense Against the Dark Arts.”

Neville laughed nervously, “So, now what?”

“Obliviate.” I said, pointing my wand at Umbridge.

“Woah!” Ron said, “Hang on, won’t that make her forget who she is?” I knew he was thinking back to Lockhart.

“Well, yeah, but only if you’re bad at the spell. But if you’re good, it will only erase what you want it to erase. It’s worked for me in the past.” I said, shrugging. “So, consider all of your detentions revoked.”

“Hang on a second,” Draco said, “Who’s memory have you erased?”

“We need to figure out some way to get a proper education in Defense Against the Dark Arts. Alohomora. A way to do it without her knowing about it, because she would shut it down for sure.” I said.

“Emma, who did you use a memory charm on?” Draco asked.

The nineteen of us parted ways. Crabbe and Goyle sulked off somewhere. Millicent, Theo and Tracey left with Pansy, trying to offer her some comfort after what she had said about Blaise. Lily and Sophie wandered off to talk to Professor Binns about one of the essays. That left only me, Harry, Draco, Hermione, Daphne, Ron, Lavender, Neville, Parvati, Dean and Seamus.

“I have been thinking the exact same thing.” Hermione said. “And then I thought, Harry has already faced Voldemort three times, well four if you count when he was a baby. And Emma, you faced him once too. And both of you have really good patronus’s and since the dementors are with the death eaters, we ought to know how to do that and whatever other spells you’ve used while facing Voldemort. Plus, Harry, you won the TriWizard Tournament.”

“Emma, when have you used ‘Obliviate.’” Draco tried again, I continued to ignore him.

“That’s brilliant, Harry you could teach us all Defense Against the Dark Arts.” I said.

“What?” Harry seemed shocked. “But, I’m no good, really, I just, it was all luck. And I had help, every single time, I had help.”

“Didn’t you take down a troll in the beginning of first year?” Asked Daphne, “That’s not an easy thing for a fully grown wizard to do.”

“You did what now?” I asked, but like Draco’s question, mine was ignored.

“I shoved my wand up its nose, that hardly counts as taking it down, let alone defensive magic. Plus, it was Ron that got him, hit him in the head with his own club.” Harry argued. “And in first year, Hermione you got us through most of those puzzles, I would have drunk the wrong potion or been killed by that plant without you. And Ron is the only reason we made it through the giant game of chess.”

“But you faced Voldemort alone!” Hermione exclaimed.

“Yeah, but he was so corrupted from living on the back of Quirrell’s skull and feeding off of unicorn blood that all I had to do to kill him was touch him!”

“But you found the Chamber of Secrets and defeated him there, you figured out what the monster was.” Seamus said.

“I didn’t figure out the monster, that was Hermione.” Was Harry’s rebuttal. “And again, Ron and I found the chamber together, and we only knew where to look because of Moaning Myrtle! Dumbledore sent me his Phoenix to help and the Phoenix had the sword of Gryffindor. I used the sword to kill the Basilisk, not magic. And I nearly died, the Basilisk bit me. The only reason that I am alive is because the Phoenix healed me. And Emma got me back my wand, disarmed Voldemort. And then this last time, when Voldemort came back, something happened. The most recent people Voldemort had killed came out of his wand, like Prior Incantatem only they were life sized. And they attacked Voldemort, which gave me time to escape. I’m not some kind of hero.”

“But Harry, you know what it’s like.” Hermione whispered. “How it feels to be out there. And give yourself some credit here, you dueled Voldemort, actually dueled him and lived to tell the tale.”

“Fine.” Harry said, after a long moment. “I’ll do it. But we need to figure out how to keep Umbridge from finding out, and we need a place to meet and we need meeting times.

“I know just the place.” Daphne exclaimed, bouncing up and down. “My dad told me about it, I’ve used it a few times before. Follow me.”

We hurried down the hall behind her, weaving through corridors and staircases, careful to avoid any teachers. Finally, Daphne stopped us in a seemingly random place in the middle of a corridor.

“Okay.” She said. “You guys wait here.” I was confused but obliged her odd request without comment. We watched in silence as she proceeded to pace back and forth a ways ahead of us.

Suddenly, a door materialized out of nowhere. Daphne swung it open and threw out her arms, “Voila!”

We all stepped inside, to find a giant room filled with mirrors and cushions and open space. It would be a perfect place to learn to defend ourselves. “What is this place?” I whispered, in awe.

“It’s called the room of requirement. It changes depending on what the person in need, is looking for. Hardly anyone knows about it, so she won’t find it, I’m sure.”

“It’s perfect.”


	9. Dealing With the Bitch

“Honestly Draco, I’m doing the right thing here.”

“And how do you figure that?” Draco asked.

The two of us were walking down a deserted corridor, headed towards Umbridge’s office. Our next class with her was meant to be today, but I had no intention of going. I was done wasting time that could be better spent actually learning something useful. I intended on either studying in the library, dorm rooms or heading down to Salazar’s mansion to read his ancient books and see if he had any other wisdom to bestow upon me.

“Well, if I have to sit through another one of her classes, I might just kill her and I reckon that would be frowned upon.”

“Yeah, I reckon it would, but how is this any better?”

“Well, this way, no one dies and I haven’t got to sick through that rubbish class. Are you sure you don’t want me to erase you too?”

“No, I think I’ll take my chances, rather sit through a boring class than sneak around the school.”

“You’re so boring... you never take any risks, its no fun.”

“Emma, do you forget that I went with you down into the chamber to destroy a horcrux? I became an animagus with you. I’m with you right now. I’m fun!”

I grinned at him, “I know, don’t worry, I was only joking.” I sighed and pushed the door to Umbridge’s office open with my hip. “Let’s get this over with, shall we?”

“Let’s.” He agreed and followed me into the office.

Umbridge was there, sitting at her desk.

“Yuck,” I scoffed, eyeing the room. It was entirely too pink and the exact stereotype of what a girl’s room would look like. It was horrible. There were plates depicting moving pictures of kittens hung to the wall and white lace place mats framing them. The carpet that covered the entire floor was comprised of a thick, hot pink material. I could feel my feet sinking into it with every step. It was like walking in the snow. I kept waiting for my feet to get wet, but of course, they never did. My skin crawled from just being inside the room. She had destroyed Remus’ office, and I hated her for it.

I needed to get out of here as soon as I possibly could. “What have you done to his office?” I spat at her.

Rather forcefully, she replaced her teacup onto its saucer. “This office belongs to me, I can do with it as I please! What are you doing in here? Are you turning in one of your missing homework assignments or reporting for a detention?” She said, in her highly irritating voice.

“Neither.” I hissed. “Stupefy.”

She flew back and smacked against the wall, unconscious, just as Lockhart had. I pushed the thought from my mind and began working on the memory charm.

“Last chance,” I sang, turning and grinning at Draco.

He crossed his arms, “Nope.”

“Fine, your mistake. Don’t come crying to me when you want out.”

“I won’t and both of us know that if I did you would say ‘I told you so’ and then wipe her memory anyway.”

“That sounds like doubt.” I said, raising my eyebrows at him, “You sure you don’t want me to make her forget that you exist too?”

“No, no. I’m going to keep with it, who knows, maybe I’ll learn something.” He gave me a half smile and I finished up the spell, carving myself from her memory entirely.

“Okay, just one last thing then.” I said and strode over to her desk. I began opening drawers, inwardly cringing to myself at Umbridge’s terrible taste. I searched through each drawer, she was impeccably organized and it annoyed me more than it should have. Finally, in the bottom drawer, I found what I was looking for; the attendance lists. I flipped through until I found the fifth year Slytherin and Gryffindor one. With the help of a little magic, I removed my name. It was doubtful that she would ever look at this list again, but better to be safe than to be sorry. I was about to close the drawer when I saw a big folder in the back of it. I pulled it out and discovered that she had taken notes on every single one of her students, myself included.

Draco came over and read over my shoulder, “You had better take that too. You can’t leave a single trace of yourself here.”

I nodded, “Right.” I took all of the pages pertaining to me and tossed them into the fire. “There.” I turned back to Draco. “Now then, let’s get out of here, shall we?”

He nodded and we bolted from the office, leaving Umbridge knocked out.

***

Harry and Hermione scheduled an introductory meeting for our unofficial Defense Against the Dark Arts classes to take place in Hogsmeade during our upcoming Hogsmeade weekend. Draco had decided not to be a part of it, seeing as Harry despised him and I could just tell him anything that went on during said meetings. It was fine by me, I didn’t need any extra drama between the two, there was already so much going on.

I met up with everyone else when the Hogsmeade weekend finally arrived and was shocked to find that loads of students had shown up, all of them wanting to be a part of the secret club. There was a long discussion and in the end we decided to go with the name ‘Dumbledore’s Army,’ an ingenious idea suggested by Ginny. It was the ministry’s worst fear after all. And I was all for scaring the ministry, especially that idiot Fudge.

I was anxious to get started, but we had four different Quidditch team schedules to work around, so it would be difficult to schedule things. If Quidditch was out of the way... No! I couldn’t sabotage Quidditch, I loved Quidditch. Some things are more important than Quidditch.

I didn’t know what to do, but luckily, the choice would likely be made for me. Ever since I had made Umbridge forget me, she had begun to create new rules, ban things. It was like she could sense that something was off, something was wrong, something was happening right under her nose. She just couldn’t remember what it was.

Perhaps I had gotten a little sloppy, it was possible, I had been talking to Draco, joking with him, I hadn’t really been focused on the task. He was just so... him.

***

With the end of the introduction meeting, we had a real first meeting with actual Defense Against the Dark Arts all set up. I was beyond excited, but I was also terrified that Umbridge would ruin it.

After the rest of the fifth year Slytherins returned from their Defense Against the Dark Arts lesson with Umbridge, they came baring news. Umbridge had decided to form a group of students to be something most similar to deputies for her. They would be called the Inquisitorial Squad. And to make matters even more... interesting? Horrible? Fantastic? I wasn’t sure. But anyway, to make matters even more something she had asked Daphne, Tracey, Draco, Millicent, Crabbe, Goyle, Theo and Pansy to be a part of it. Along with two dozen other Slytherins. All of whom had accepted.

Of all of the fifth years, only Crabbe and Goyle could pose an actual threat to us. In the beginning they had been stupid, yes, but well intentioned. Now... now they were different. They were mean, bullies, cruel and looking to follow in their fathers footsteps, to become death eaters.

But the others, though they weren’t a part of Dumbledore’s Army, I knew I nothing to worry about from them, they wouldn’t sell me out. Especially not to Umbridge.

Daphne wanted desperately to join Dumbledore’s Army, she thought it was the perfect way to get in with Harry, but I warned her against it. Harry would be incredibly busy with teaching everyone and he still held a flame for Cho. Despite my constant attempts to the contrary, he just couldn't let her go.

So, I thought maybe it would be better for me to just let things play out, watch it go up in flames and then send in Daphne to put out the fire. I really thought the two of them could be good together, or maybe that was just hope creeping in. But wasn’t a little hope necessary for survival?

***

I had to be honest, I was getting bored with my free period. I wished Draco had let me erase him, then we’d be able to have some fun with no one else around. But alas, that was not the case, so after my next Potions class, I found myself staying late to talk to Snape.

“Can I help you with something, Miss Evans?” Snape asked.

“Er, yeah.” I began. “So, I was wondering if you could give me permission to get books from the restricted section of the library?”

“Why?” He asked. “What do you need them for?”

“I don’t know, just stuff.”

“Emma, these books are seriously dangerous, I’m going to need a little more than ‘just stuff’ to give you permission.” He said, looking down at me.

“Okay fine. I wanted to do some research, you know, in my spare time, see if I could find something that might help the Order.”

“Right, yeah, of course then, anything you find that might help, let me know. Or Albus or Minerva, really anyone in the Order. Just don’t say anything to Dolores.”

“Right, of course, I wouldn’t. What was then ministry thinking by bringing her into this? She’s not cut out to be a teacher, I mean anyone can see that.”

***

I began to worry when it was announced that Umbridge would be conducting evaluations of all of the other staff members. I was most worried for Hagrid and Trelawney, as their teaching methods were... unusual. Binns would likely not even notice her presence, that was how it usually happened. The heads of houses would be fine. Burbage would likely be ridiculed for teaching Muggle Studies, but she really was a fantastic teacher. What was worse, was I couldn’t stand up for them, because that would lead to questions and me getting caught and likely expelled.

Draco and Daphne and all the others couldn’t stand up for them either because they had to keep up their facade of being in the Inquisitorial Squad. And then there was Crabbe and Goyle, who wouldn’t stand up for them, even if they could.

Everything was just stacking on top of everything else and it was overwhelming. So I did the thing I knew would calm me and I went to the library. I hurried directly to the restricted section, forgetting about Madam Pince entirely. 

“Excuse me!” She called, waddling on over to me, “Where do you think you’re going?”

“Oh, so sorry.” I said, turning around. “I’ve got permission.” I pulled out the slip of parchment from my pocket and passed it over to her.

“You have permission to read anything you want from the restricted section?” She asked skeptically.

“Yes.” I said, pushing as much confidence into the word as I possibly could. She stared at me for a good minute before waddling back to her desk, a frown pinching her face, making her appear even older than she actually was.

I browsed the section for longer than I realized and soon enough, Madam Pince was warning everyone that the library would only be opened for ten more minutes. Shit. I needed to pick something before I was forced back to the common room with nothing. I hurriedly grabbed a large green book titled _Ancient Hexes and Curses_ and checked it out. It wasn’t really what I had been looking for, nor would it really aid in anything the Order was working on, but it might give me some sort of sense of what we were up against. Anyway, it would be interesting to see what wretched things the darkest of wizards had managed to come up with throughout the centuries.

“Time to go.” Pince said.

So I went, the book tucked under my arm.

And when I returned to the Slytherin common room, Draco wasn’t there. So I went up to our room and found him hunched over the desk. I slid the book onto the nightstand, slid off my shoes and collapsed onto the bed all in one motion.

“Hey.” Draco said, turning around, leaning over the chair’s back to face me. “Do you want me to be done with this?” He asked, gesturing to the essay he was writing.

I nodded. He stood and cracked his neck and shoulders. He strode over to the bed and settled himself beside me. I curled myself against him and he wrapped his arm around my shoulder. I kissed him, long and slow and then he was waving his wand and plunging the room into darkness.


	10. Dumbledore’s Army

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry! I know this was supposed to be up yesterday, but I hope you think it was worth the wait!  
> Enjoy! :)

Umbridge’s evaluations of the teachers were hell. She picked apart every single teacher and even drove McGonagall into such high levels of annoyance that she lost it and snapped at Umbridge. It was rather entertaining to see, especially when I found out that McGonagall had snapped at her during Harry’s class too.

Apparently, Umbridge had decided to sit in on every single one of each teacher’s classes. It seemed to be a tad excessive, but I refrained from voicing my opinions to her. I knew it would only end in trouble and I didn’t need any more of that at the moment.

She always seemed to be in two places at once, preforming her evaluations and teaching Defense Against the Dark Arts lessons at the same time. She must have been using a time turner, it was the only explanation that made any sort of sense. And of course the ministry would sanction her use of one.

I thought that Hagrid was in the most danger, so I spent a lot of time with him at his cabin, helping him plan out his lessons until I was satisfied that they could pass Umbridge. And they did. She was rude and derogatory to Hagrid, yes, but he would be allowed to remain a teacher at Hogwarts for the time being.

Unfortunately, the same did not go for Professor Trelawney. I wasn’t sure how she did with her other classes, but she was rather dreadful in mine. I liked her and I certainly learned a lot in her class, but I had to admit, she wasn’t that great of a teacher. It was really the books that I learned from.

Umbridge was in the midst of ridiculing Trelawney when I decided enough was enough. I clenched my fist and prepared to stand up.

“Hey,” Draco whispered. “Come on, Em. You know you can’t.”

“I can’t just sit here.” I hissed.

“You haven’t got a choice.” Gently, he coaxed my fingers into loosening and entangled them with his own, his warm hand encompassing mine.

I sighed, “Fine.” But I wasn’t happy about it, I wanted to do something. I knew he was right, but still...

“I hate her so much.” I hissed.

“I know and I hate her too, but we cannot afford to be reckless, not anymore.” He said.

***

Three days later, Trelawney was being fired in the courtyard, in front of everybody. She was crying and pleading with Umbridge. But, Umbridge was as much a stone cold bitch as ever and was having none of that. She threw Trelawney’s bags at her and they landed in a heap at her feet, stained green by the grass. Despite Trelawney’s questionable teaching methods, she really wasn’t that bad and I didn’t want to see her go. Especially if she was to be replaced by someone of the ministry’s closing, or worse, Umbridge’s.

I shivered at the very thought. That woman truly was despicable in every sense of the word. I settled for glaring angrily at her as she mocked Trelawney in her little girl’s voice.

Luckily, moments later, Professor McGonagall strode into the mix. I knew she wasn’t fond of Trelawney, but it would seem that all of the teachers had banded together in this time of mutual hatred of Umbridge.

“What is the meaning of this?” She growled.

“Emma,” Draco hissed in my ear, “Haven’t you got your meeting?”

He was right, the first meeting of the DA was supposed to be today. Now, in fact. “Shit! Thanks.” I wanted to stay and see how things would play out with these three women, but we would never get a better opportunity to sneak away.

I spotted Harry in the ground, he was with Hermione and Ron. Quickly I made my way over to him, reminding any DA members I met along the way.

“Harry. Hermione. Ron. Come on, we’ve got to go.” When none of them moved, I added, “The DA meeting, remember?”

“Oh!” Hermione gasped and scrabbled back through the crowd. The four of us disappeared together back into the castle.

Surprisingly enough, the four of us were the first ones to arrive. Hermione rearranged a few things as we waited for others to arrive. After about ten minutes of waiting, everyone was there.

The lot of us stood in a little huddle, with Harry and Hermione apart from the rest. Harry was in the front, facing all of us, and Hermione stood halfway between Harry and the rest of us, as though she was the bridge that brought us all together.

“Right, shall we get practicing then? I was thinking, the first thing we should do is Expelliarmus, you know, the disarming charm. I know it’s pretty basic but I found it really useful—” Harry began, but he was interrupted by Zacharias Smith.

“Oh please. I don’t think Expelliarmus is exactly going to help us against You-Know-Who, do you?” He scoffed.

I’ve used it against him.” Harry hissed, his voice deadly quiet. “It saved my life last June.” Zacharias had no response. “But if you think it’s beneath you, you can leave.” Zacharias didn’t move, nor did anyone else. “Okay. I reckon we should divide into pairs and practice.”

I looked around as everyone paired up. Hermione went with Fred, causing Ron’s ears to turn red with embarrassment or jealousy, I couldn’t be sure. In retaliation, he partnered with one of the fifth year Gryffindor girls. I thought her name was Lavender or something of the sort. Ginny partnered with Luna. George with Angelina Johnson. Cho with her friend Marietta. “Neville.” I said, striding over to him, “Do you want to be my partner?”

“Sure, that’d be great.” He said, grinning at me. I returned it and moved to face him, my wand raised.

“Right, on the count of three then. One, two, three.” Harry called and the room burst into motion, filling with shouts, including my own. Neville was disarmed in an instant. Neville collected his wand and we got back into the proper dueling stances or at least I thought they were proper, from the single dueling lesson we had received during my first year at Hogwarts.

“Right, ready then?” I asked.

“Yeah.”

“Three, two, one, go!” I called. This time I decided to go on the defensive, it might help Neville to disarm me quicker. I knew that once he did, he would gain a bit of confidence and then he’d be able to disarm me more easily.

“Expelliarmus!” He called.

I countered with a Protego charm.

“Expelliarmus.”

I blocked it once more.

“Expelliarmus!” He screamed and my wand slipped through my fingertips before I could shield myself.

I snatched my wand up from the ground and said, “Good one, let’s go again.”

I was back on the offensive, but he was blocking me and countering with a disarming charm of his own every time. We were at it for a solid five minuted before I finally disarmed him. He was improving rather quickly and I had to say, I was impressed.

Harry walked around, critiquing people and watching others have a go at it. He had no tips to give to Ginny, Hermione or I, all of us had it down perfectly. As did Fred and George.

After twenty minutes, he separated us into three groups. I was put into the first group, with Hermione, Ginny, Fred, George, Angelina, and a few of the other other members.

The second group contained Neville, Luna, Cho, Marietta and some of the ones who knew the spell, just needed more practice.

The third group was comprised of those who still couldn’t manage the spell at all and was majorly comprised of the younger students.

Once Harry finished separating everyone into their groups, he said, “Okay, everyone pair up with someone who is in the same group as you, try to pair up with someone different from your original partner. Groups one and two, continue on normally, try and disarm your opponent, keep track of how many times you disarm them and how many times you are disarmed, I will want to know at the end. Group three, I’m going to try and work with you a bit more, as a smaller group, but still pair up.” Harry made his way over to the third group and began speaking more quietly with them.

“Emma?” Hermione asked, “Be my partner?”

“Of course.”

And so, we began to duel. In the allotted time, we only managed to finish one duel, which ended in my victory, but barely. We had tried to disarm each other at the same time and both of our wands had gone flying from our hands. But hers had been less powerful, so I had managed to recapture my wand from the air.

Harry came around with a quill and a scroll of parchment. He began to write down everyone’s number of wins to total matches. Like Hermione and I, Fred and George had been pretty evenly matched. Fred had barely come out on top. Just like me.

Neville had won the majority of of his duels, and I couldn’t help the sense of pride that flooded through me. He really was getting good at this.

“Okay everyone.” Harry called. “That’s going to be all for today, we’ll pick this up again on Wednesday. We’re going to have you leave a few people at a time, so it doesn’t look suspicious. Colin, Dennis, you two go first.”

It took around ten minutes for everyone to leave, and then it was just Hermione, Harry, Ron and I.

“Good job, Harry.” I said, giving him a one armed hug.

“Thanks.” He said, grinning.

“Do you know what the focus of Wednesday’s meeting is going to be?” I asked.

“Yeah, I was thinking the shield charm, Protego.” He said. “I know it has to be incredibly powerful to protect you from the killing curse, but it will at least be able to help with other spells.”

“Good idea. I did notice that a lot of the younger ones were just throwing disarming charm after disarming charm at one another and not even attempting to shield themselves.” I said.

Hermione nodded her head in agreement, but Ron didn’t seem to be listening at all. He was watching Hermione. I had to work hard to refrain from rolling my eyes.

***

Brian Gagwilde visited Draco and I not long after I returned from the meeting. “Salazar wants to evaluate the both of you.” He said.

“Evaluate us on what?” I asked.

“Your dueling abilities.” He replied.

“Are we dueling him or each other?” Draco asked.

Brian merely shrugged.

“Right,” I said dully, “Does he want us now.”

“Yes, if you can get down there.”

Draco looked at me and said into my mind, ‘Do you want to go?’

‘Yes.’ I responded.

“We’ll be down shortly.” He said and we stood together.

Umbridge was making some the Inquisitorial Squad patrol the corridors, but lucky for us, we didn’t encounter any of them.

When we got down to Salazar’s mansion, he found it to now contain a giant empty room for dueling.

“Okay,” Salazar said, “Go for it, I want to see everything you can do. Except don’t kill each other, that’s the only thing I can’t heal.” We got into the proper positions and waited for Salazar’s go ahead. “Begin.”

We flew into action. “Stupefy!” I shouted.

But Draco blocked it with Protego. “Expelliarmus!” He tried.

I shielded myself from it and countered with a blast of water from my wand. “Aguamenti!”

He sent flames soaring my way, but my water extinguished them. I surrounded him in a sphere of water. He sent the water flying in little droplets that disappeared into the air. I sent a spell that would temporarily blind him towards him, but he was ready and sent it rebounding my way. I bent backwards to avoid it. I conjured a snake and hissed at it to attack. It lunged for Draco but he dissolved it into a pile of ash. He cast a stinging jinx which hit my thigh. Shit that hurt. I could feel it swelling but I did my best to ignore it and shouted, “Alarte Ascendare!” He flew up into the air.

Before he could make contact with the ground, he cast Arresto Momentum on himself, slowing his fall and allowing him to land lightly on his feet. “Avis!” He screamed and birds shot from his wand, torpedoing towards me.

“Baubillious!” I cried and birds fell to the ground, dead. “Bombarda!” He moved out of the way just in time, the ground exploded by his legs, he was propelled backwards by the force of the blast, but was otherwise unscathed.

“Colloshoo!” Draco cast and I felt my shoes harden against the ground, I couldn’t move my feet like this.

“Deprimo!” I returned, pushing him back so he was stuck to the wall as I slipped my feet from my shoes. This was the only time that having shoes three sizes too big came in handy. “Petrificus Totalus!” I shouted.

At the same time, he called, “Mimblewimble!”

I couldn’t speak and he couldn’t move. I knew he would be able to break free soon, I needed to regain my ability to speak. Finite Incantatem, Finite Incantatem, Finite Incantatem, Finite Incantatem! I thought the incantation over and over again, until finally, I felt my tongue return to its normal shape. “Carpe Retractum!” Ropes shot from my wand, wrapping themselves around Draco’s arms and torso and pulling him towards me.

But apparently he had been thinking Finite Incantatem too because my Petrificus Totalus lifted and he could move once more. He threw his arms back, making the ropes yank and I lost my footing. In my moment of unbalance, he freed himself from the ropes with “Relashio.” He took a moment to breath. Then he shouted,“Ventus Duo!” and I was pushed with dizzying force into the wall behind me.

I pointed my wand behind myself and cast “Spongify!” The instant before I hit the wall, it morphed into a soft, pillow like substance.

“Stupefy!” We screamed in unison and the red light of the spell shot out of our wands in a stream that connected in the middle. I clutched my wand tightly, willing my spell to be stronger than Draco’s. But it seemed we were evenly matched, for the streams stayed connected exactly in the center.

I mentally prepared myself then, stopped my spell and bolted out of the way of Draco’s. “Expelliarmus!” I shouted before he could react, it struck him, forcing his wand from his hand. “Stupefy!” I thought the duel had been won, but just as I had earlier in the day, he snatched it back from the air, blocked my spell and sent a disarming charm of his own back to me. I was unprepared and barely managed to sidestep it. He sent a series of stinging jinxes my way in quick succession. One caught my side and another got my shoulder. But the rest, I was able to repel back at him. One hit his cheek and another got him straight in the chest. He gasped in pain but didn’t back down, neither did I.

“Wingardium Leviosa!” I screamed, followed by “Stupefy!” Pointed to the air where I knew Draco would rise.

“Protego!” Draco said, reacting quickly.

“Enough.” Salazar called and we both lowered our wands, panting. He was smiling broadly at us. “Well done, you two, excellent, extraordinary even. It’s no wonder Dumbledore-” He cut himself off.

“It’s no wonder Dumbledore, what?” I asked.

“Nothing. Well it’s something, of course, but not for today.” Salazar said. “But the two of you are the most skilled teenagers I have ever encountered. You’re even stronger than Godric, Helena, Rowena and I were at your age.”

I smiled, letting his odd comment about Dumbledore go, I accepted the compliment. “So you think we have a chance then? Of defeating him?”

“I think that if you can’t then no one can.”


	11. Return

Trelawney as it would turn out, had been allowed to continue living in Hogwarts, though she was no longer a teacher here. It fell under Dumbledore’s jurisdiction to appoint a new teacher to the position. But for the time being, divination classes were canceled. This provided me with ample amounts of free time to complete all of my homework and sneak down to Salazar’s mansion. Draco joined me most of the time, but he couldn’t always make it since he was still taking Defense Against the Dark Arts.

Umbridge had continued to observe Professor Burbage, it would seem as though she was looking for an excuse to kick her out. I knew Professor Burbage would already be gone if not for Umbridge’s need for probable cause before forcing someone from their position.

Tonks and I had taken to exchanging letters that consisted of constantly bashing Umbridge. Of all the Order members, she was by far my favorite. Taleus was pretty awesome too. Two bits of amazing news had come with Tonk’s last letter. Firstly, Taleus had proposed to her, their wedding would be this summer, and I was invited. The second piece was that Tonks was carrying a child, a son, she was five months pregnant. That meant she was stepping to the side on in-the-field work for the Order until the baby was born. That would complicate things a bit, but no one in the Order wanted to risk her unborn child. I had shown the wedding invitation to Draco and asked, “Do you want to be my plus one?”

“Of course I do, I’d never say no to free cake.” I laughed.

***

During Transfiguration, Snape swept into the room. “Minerva, I need to borrow Miss. Evans, Mr. Malfoy, Miss. Parkinson and Mr. Longbottom.”

The four of us stood up, Neville looked scared, and confused to be grouped with the three of us.

As soon as we reached the corridor, I asked, “What is it?”

“We found Blaise.”

“What?” Pansy breathed, her voice breaking, “Is he...?” She couldn’t finish the question.

“He’s alive, he’s here. He tried to apparate, but even with the proper training, it’s dangerous, he splinched himself, badly. Madam Pomfrey is working on him now. He appeared in the middle of Hogsmeade. Madam Rosmerta sent word and Dumbledore got him and brought him back here. He was unconscious when he arrived.” Then Snape seemed to remember that Neville was there and he added, “The Dark Lord sent some of his death eaters after your grandmother.” Neville’s face went white as a ghost. Snape continued, “Three death eaters were seen entering her house; Abiril, Casteres and Durral. All three of them are in St. Mungo’s now. Abiril is missing several limbs. Casteres seems to have no memory of who he is. And Durral appears to have been mauled by some sort of animal your Grandmother conjured. She was seen exiting the home, uninjured. She’s here now, in the hospital wing, Madam Pomfrey was checking her, but she said she wasn’t hit by a single spell.”

Neville laughed, relieved, “That sounds like my Gran.” I was relieved too. Neville’s grandmother was a little old lady living on her own, I had thought that made her vulnerable, but that didn’t seem to be the case. She was stronger than I had imagined.

We reached the hospital wing and Neville ran to where his grandmother stood, waiting. They began to talk in hushed voices, so we gave them their privacy.

Blaise was lying on a hospital bed, unconscious and covered with blood. I tried my hardest to remain calm, but there was so much blood. How could a person lose that much blood and not be dead? Gaping holes marred his dark skin.

‘He’ll be fine.’ Draco said into my mind. It was the first time he had done it without us making eye contact.

‘You can’t be sure of that.’ I countered.

Madam Pomfrey poured drops of something onto Blaise’s wounds.

“What is that?” Pansy asked and her voice shook.

I knew the answer just before Madam Pomfrey said it. For I recognized that liquid, thick and with a silver tinge to it. “Phoenix tears.” The wounds began to magically close themselves as Madam Pomfrey siphoned away the blood. She waved her wand and Blaise’s eyes flew open and he sucked in a breath.

“Blaise?” Pansy asked softly.

“Pans?” He whispered, his voice hoarse.

“You’re alive, I was so worried.” She cried, rushing to his side and carefully wrapping her arms around him, conscious of the pain that would likely still remain from his wounds. Only now that the blood was gone, was I able to really take notice of how thin Blaise was. Wherever he had been for all of this time, he had not had much to eat.

“Draco and my mother, they were with me.” Blaise got out, but it was clearly an effort.

“I’m here.” Draco said, stepping forward. “All of us escaped the death eaters and were separated. A few days later, they caught your mum, I’m so sorry Blaise.”

“Is she dead?” He asked. No one answered. But he took our silence as answer enough and nodded solemnly. “Do you know who did it?”

“Fenrir Greyback.” I said softly.

“I’ll kill that son of a bitch.” Blaise hissed, trying to rise and failing.

“Not now,” Pansy said. “You’re still hurt, just give it time, okay?” He sighed but complied with her request.

I stepped away, feeling intrusive. Pansy was his girlfriend and Draco was his best friend. I was just me.

Snape sidled up to me and whispered, “Remind your brother that he has his Occlumency lesson with me this evening.”

“Occlumency?” I asked, this was news to me. “What, he didn’t tell you that Dumbledore asked me to teach him Occlumency.”

I shook my head, racking my brain for any semblance of a memory of such a conversation. Nothing came to the forefront of my mind. “No. Why are you teaching him Occlumency?”

“Attempting to teach him Occlumency.” Snape corrected, “He has failed thus far. He is incapable of closing his mind.”

“Okay, why are you attempting to teach him Occlumency?”

“Because the Dark Lord and him share a connection and while he is able to look into the Dark Lord’s mind, it means the Dark Lord can look back and he can send Potter false information to mislead and trap him.”

“Ah.” I said, “Yes, it would seem best that he learn to block that out then.”

Snape nodded his agreement, “Except he refuses to learn.”

I sighed, “Sounds like him.” Then added, “I’ll pass along the message.”

***

“Salazar, look, my brother is failing to learn Occlumency, it’s really important that he learn.”

“No, Emma. He isn’t coming down here and I can’t leave.”

I groaned. “But don’t you want Voldemort gone?”

“Of course I do, but this is not the way. You’re stilled enough at it, why don’t you try teaching him?”

I let out a long, dramatic sigh.

***

Umbridge was getting on my last straw. She had decided it would be appropriate to ban any activities that involved the congregation of more than three people, give Harry detention every Saturday for the rest of the year and make Blaise make up every assignment he had missed from the year thus far. The whole school was in utter tumult, seeing as that ban included Quidditch and Hogsmeade weekends.

More people had joined the DA, many of them hotheaded and looking to stage a revolt against Umbridge. Unfortunately, Hermione was opposed to the idea. Her argument was pretty solid though, “Then we would be declaring war against the Ministry.”

The Room of Requirement had grown in size to accommodate all of its new occupants. There were upwards of one hundred members now and I knew Harry was unsure of how to manage that many people.

The next thing he had planned was patronus’s so I offered to help him teach, seeing as I could do a corporeal one too. That seemed to settle his nerves a little. But still we had our work cut out for us. When I asked the group who had performed a patronus charm before, not a single hand raised.

“Okay, Harry and I are going to demonstrate our patronus’s first.” I said. “This is non-corporeal. Expecto Patronum.” I said, thinking of a happy memory, but not any of my stronger ones. A silvery substance erupted from my wand. “And this is corporeal. Expecto Patronum!” My fox leapt from within my wand and trotted around the room, rolling and playing.

Harry’s stag joined her, galloping in circles. “Now for today, we won’t expect anyone to get to this stage, you will likely all have non-corporeal patronus’s for a while.” Harry said.

“To produce a patronus, you need to think of a really happy memory, the happiest one you have if you can and keep that in the front of your mind when you cast it. It will be harder, much harder when you’re facing a real dementor, seeing as they try to rip the happiness away from you, you mustn’t let them.” I said. “The best way to do that is to be able to produce a corporeal patronus.”

“Everyone, go on, try it now.” Harry urged and they began.

Fred and George were the first to manage a non-corporeal patronus. Quickly followed by Daphne, who had been among the new members. But to everyone’s surprise, the first one to achieve a corporeal patronus was Luna, the most bullied girl in the entire school. Her patronus was a beautiful and elegant hare that hopped about before fading into a light mist.

“Brilliant, Luna!” I said. The other members gave her a round of applause before getting back to their own attempts.

Fred was the second one to get it down, his corporeal patronus taking the form of a magpie. George followed him seconds later with the same patronus. By the end of the lesson, several more people had formed corporeal patronus’s.

Cho’s was a swan, Ginny’s was a horse, Ron’s was a Jack Russel Terrier, Hermione’s was an otter and Ernie Macmillan’s was a boar. Most surprising of all was Neville’s patronus though, even more surprising than the fact that he had been able to cast a corporeal patronus in the first place. For, Neville’s patronus was a lion.

He had been so excited and I could tell that he desperately wanted to tell his Grandmother, but to do so would compromise the secrecy of our meetings and then we would all be in serious trouble, likely expelled. Even so, it was a victory for Neville and for Harry and I. I couldn’t help the pride that bubbled up in my chest.

We exited the Room of Requirement in small groups, just as we had after all of the other meetings. We had gone longer than intended and thereby missed curfew. I was worried I would be caught in the corridors after hours, as all punishments were referred back to Umbridge and my existence would be revealed to her, something that I could not let happen. So I sprinted, and I mean literally sprinted, all the way down to the dungeons. I bolted into the Slytherin common room. I was glad to see Daphne, Tracey and Astoria had all made it back okay.

Everyone seemed to be rather subdued though, “What’s happened?” I asked, scared to hear the answer.

“Gellert Grindelwald was sighted in Hogsmeade an hour ago.” Daphne whispered. “And now Dumbledore’s brother, Aberforth, the owner of the Hog’s Head, is missing. Dumbledore has gone to search for them. So the Ministry has put Umbridge in charge.”

_No._


	12. Cracking Down

Umbridge was in charge of the entire school, this was bad, this was very, very bad. And Dumbledore was gone. And Grindelwald was here. And he had taken Dumbledore’s brother. The world had dissolved into chaos in the span of ten seconds. If this was all happening without the ministry even believing that Voldemort was alive, how bad would things get when he made his presence known? I didn’t even want to think about that, it was too terrible and all too real.

Just then, Umbridge’s voice echoed through the castle, magically magnified. “I am very saddened to state that Professor Dumbledore is no longer with us. He has decided to place his strained familial bonds over his obligations and responsibilities at this school, demonstrating his disregard for his students. The ministry will no longer tolerate such negligence of duties, and therefore, until a trial to deem his fitfulness for the position, I shall be taking up the role of Headmistress.

“Anything and everything must be run by me. You are to be in your classes during the designated times. There will be no wandering the halls or the grounds at any time unless you are a member of the Inquisitorial Squad. The Inquisitorial Squad has jurisdiction over all other students, including Prefects. They are allowed to grant and take away points and hand out detentions.

“All detentions will be run by me. All rule breakers shall be referred to me.There will be no leaving meals early, eating meals outside of the Great Hall or getting meals late, there will also be no skipping meals. If you are discovered to be outside of the Great Hall during mealtime, you will receive a detention.

“Repeat offenses shall result in expulsion. There will be no congregating in the corridors at any time. There will be no congregating on the grounds. If a student is late to a class, that respective teacher shall send said student directly to me for punishment.

“There will be no students in the common rooms past nine o’clock. Heads of Houses are to preform a check every night to ensure no students remain in the common room after said time. These rules are to go into effect immediately, Heads of Houses, you are to go and check to make sure no students are in their designated common rooms immediately.”

“She’s gone mad, she has literally, without a doubt lost her mind.” Tracey yelled angrily.

I began to pace back and forth around the room. “We are going to have to rethink the DA.” I said softly, so as not to be overheard, and checked my watch. It was quarter past ten, but I refused to leave the common room.

My friends, and many others remained as well. It was only the hardcore Inquisitorial Squad members who obeyed Umbridge’s orders and hurried upstairs. I rolled my eyes at them. Sheep. I refused to be a sheep.

“We’ll have to have everyone go under the invisibility cloak and use the map. It will take forever, that or we will have to knock people out and wipe their memories, ugh this is going to be so tricky.” I groaned, massaging my temples. “Maybe we can get Peeves to help us, I bet he would like to take down Umbridge.” I turned to the others, “Where’s Draco?”

“He’s up in his room, thinking, or at least he said he was going to go think.” Pansy said, picking at her nails.

I forced my mind to focus on Draco, and I sent out a thought, hoping it would reach his mind. ‘I’m back, can you please come down?’ I had never sent a thought into his mind without him being in the same room as me, so this was a big stretch. I was being to doubt that he had heard when he came jogging down the stairs.

“I swear it’s like you two are psychic or something,” Daphne said, eyeing Draco. “How did you know she was here?” Daphne called.

“I don’t know,” He said shrugging, “Just lucky, I guess. Or really good timing. Take you pick.”

“My god, you are so infuriating sometimes.” Tracey said.

“Hey babe.” I said as he came over and kissed my forehead, sliding his arm around my waist.

“Hey,” He glanced around and then whispered, “How was the meeting?”

“Good, we did patronus’s, I’ll teach you sometime. A few people got corporeal ones.”

“Really? Isn’t this the first day you’ve worked on them? Who did it?”

“Yeah, it was their first day. Harry and I demonstrated ours of course. Then Ron and Hermione got them, but I know that they were practicing in an empty classroom for a few days before the meeting because you know, its more motivational to the others when someone gets it. Fred and George did it, surprise, surprise, they’ve got the same form. Cho did it, Ginny did it, uh... oh, Ernie Macmillan. And... Neville did it.”

“Really? Neville?”

“Yeah, I’m so proud of him. But get this, Neville’s patronus is a lion.”

“Wow, it doesn’t get anymore Gryffindor than that.”

“Ha, right.”

“So, does that mean if he became an animagus, his shifted form would be a lion too?”

“Yeah unless he’s in love with someone because then that would mean that his patronus could actually be her form, not his.”

“Huh.” Draco thought for a moment as we walked over to a chair and slid down into it. “Do you think he’s in love with someone?”

I glanced over at Astoria. Her personality definitely did not scream lion to me. “I think he likes someone, but I don’t think that that someone’s personality really fits with a lion.”

Draco followed my gaze and his eyes widened. “Astoria?”

I shrugged, “I mean, I’m not positive, they could just be close friends, but my instincts are telling me that Neville, at least, wants more than that. Maybe they both do. I should have asked you to grab the map before you came down, I wanted to check it to see if Grindelwald is inside the castle.”

“I mean, Emma, we do have magic you know.” He said, laughing.

“Oh my god, I swear, sometimes it’s like I don’t have a brain.” I sighed. “Accio map.” The map came zooming down the stairs and landed upon my lap. “I solemnly swear that I am up to no good.” The map revealed itself to us. “Help me look.”

We spent a few minutes looking for Grindelwald with no luck.

“Emma, he’s really powerful right? So don’t you think he might be able to cloak himself, keep himself from being detected. Like the Room of Requirement, it doesn’t show up on the map when it’s being used for the DA.” Draco said.

“How do you know that?” I asked.

“I may or may not have looked at it once or twice, while I was waiting for you to get back.” He confessed.

“Okay, but that’s a room, I don’t think it’s the same as a person.” I said.

“But think Em, someone had to have created the room, so they made it so it will appear and disappear, they made it unplottable when the user needs it to be unplottable. So, some witches and wizards out there have to be able to do the same to themselves.”

I thought back to all of the times when Dumbledore was nowhere to be found on the map, I had always just assumed that he had left Hogwarts. But maybe he had done something to hide himself from everything. What was it that Harry had told me? Dumbledore didn’t need a cloak to become invisible. Maybe Grindelwald didn’t either. He could be inside of this castle and no one would know.

No, that wasn’t true. Dumbledore would know, he knew everything that went on in the castle, didn’t he?

Perhaps he wasn’t as on top of things as he liked to appear. I mean really, so many things had happened right under his nose and he had had no clue whatsoever. He hadn’t known that Voldemort was living on the back of Quirrell’s head. He hadn’t known that Tom Riddle was using Ginny to open the chamber of secrets by controlling her with a diary. He hadn’t known if the chamber of secrets was real or where it was. He hadn’t known that Sirius had been innocent all along. He hadn’t known that Peter had been living as Ron’s pet rat and hiding out from everyone. He hadn’t known that my father and his friends roamed the ground every full moon. He hadn’t known that they were unregistered animagus’s. He hadn’t known that Draco and I were animagus’s. He didn’t know that Salazar Slytherin was alive and living underneath the castle in a secret mansion that bridged off of the chamber of secrets. He had had no idea that Barty Crouch Jr was alive and the one who put Harry’s name in the Goblet and had been posing as Remus Lupin for an entire school year. And I didn’t think he knew about the DA.

Maybe he was just pretending about all of it, he didn’t have all of the answers. Maybe he didn’t have any of them. But he was powerful and now he was gone, leaving the school defenseless against Umbridge and Voldemort. Attack could come from either way. The only way to stay safe and prepared was to continue our meetings in secret and hope that no one got caught or snitched. Hermione had preformed a spell so that if someone snitched on us, we would know exactly who it was, but still that wouldn’t stop them from snitching, just make them regret that they had.

“I suppose, we’ll have to look into it. If Grindelwald can hide himself, then so can Dumbledore, maybe he hasn’t left at all.” But even as I said it, I doubted it was true. Because if he really was still here, I thought he would make his presence known to me or Harry. He would want us to know that he was still here, so his absence from the map meant that he was really gone.

Snape entered the common room then, his cloak billowing out behind him. “Why am I not surprised?” He sighed. He looked extremely tired. “I suppose it’s too hopeful of me to assume that you all missed the announcement and will just go up to tour dorm rooms when I tell you that the common room curfew is now nine o’clock every evening, including weekends.”

“Far too hopeful,” I called across the room.

Maybe I imagined it, but I thought I saw the corner of his mouth twitch upward. “Well I tried.” he said, and turned to leave. He swept from the room, the stone wall sliding shut behind him. I went over to it and whispered, “Hey, could you do us all a favor and not let Umbridge in if she ever tries to get in here. Also, we wouldn’t be opposed if you didn’t hear the real Inquisitorial Squad members when they tell you the password.”

***

The workload for our classes grew and grew. Even without Defense Against the Dark Arts on my plate, I struggled to keep up. I no longer had any time to go down and learn from Salazar and his books. Nor had we had another DA meeting since the patronus lesson. I was really starting to miss it and I knew many of the others were feeling the same way. But there just wasn’t any time. Homework was taking longer and longer to complete because now it was just Draco and I doing it together, instead the entire group working everything out.

Mysteriously, Crabbe, Goyle and a few of the other Inquisitorial Squad members were unable to get into the common room. For some strange reason the wall just wouldn’t part to grant them entry. The same happened when Umbridge tried to get in.

I couldn’t believe my asking a literal stone wall to deny them passage had worked, but alas, I wouldn’t press my luck. Snape and the others were legitimately perplexed by the situation and had absolutely no idea how to fix it.

Only Draco was aware of what was really going on. I had sent the memory into his mind the first time Crabbe and Goyle had been locked out.

In retaliation to the stubborn wall, Umbridge had changed curfew tonight o’clock, then seven o’clock, then six o’clock. That left us with only an hour to eat our supper every evening. But it was still worth it, exiting the common room in the morning to find a group of Slytherins sleeping on the floor. I ‘accidentally’ sent a few Bat Bogey Hexes their way. The outcome was rather hilarious, especially seeing as they didn’t wake up once they were hit by the spell. For the first couple of weeks, the students followed Umbridge’s absurd rules, for fear of evoking the wrath of the ministry upon themselves.

I hoped they would start to fight back soon, if Dumbledore didn’t return, within the next couple of weeks, there would be some real trouble. It would be war, the students against Umbridge. It wasn’t a question of who would win. The question was, by the time the ministry arrived to aid Umbridge, would there be anything left of her to aid, or would we have torn her to shreds?

Trelawney was sent home on the next train out of Hogsmeade, she was blubbering as though her best friend had just died right in front of her. Even though she looked and sounded ridiculous, I felt sorry for her. She had been singled out by Umbridge’s cruelty. McGonagall had walked her to the train and patted her back as she climbed the steps and vanished from view.

During one potions lesson, I got up and crossed the room, something that technically should have earned me a detention. A new rule had been made in the past week, ‘no fraternizing with members of other houses.’ She wanted to keep us divided, because if we were divided, we couldn’t fight her.

But of course, Snape said nothing. None of the teachers reported any transgressions to Umbridge, they all hated her just as much as we did.

“Hermione,” I hissed.

“What?” She whispered back and then whipped her head around, “You have to be careful, what if Umbridge walked in?”

“I would knock her out and erase her memories again.” I said. Hermione laughed like I was joking. “I need you to let me have one of your Gryffindor ties, so I can sit with you guys during meals and stuff, you know, to discuss the DA, I can transfer information without Umbridge knowing. Luna has already given me one of hers and I have one of Hannah’s too, I just need Gryffindor now.” I said.

“Why don’t you just change the color of one of yours?” She asked.

“I can’t, don’t you remember, from Hogwarts: A History when that one girl kept changing her tie and pretending to be in different houses so she could sabotage the other houses scores for the end of the year so that her house would always win? So the ties were enchanted so that they couldn’t be altered?” I asked quietly.

“Oh right, fine, I’ll get you a tie.” Hermione hissed.

Ron laughed and said sarcastically, “I can’t believe you didn’t remember that Hermione, it was so obvious and not obscure at all.”

“Emma,” Snape snapped. A warning. I whipped my head around and saw that the classroom door was opening. Quickly, all of the Slytherins stood up with their extra materials and began walking over to the cabinets to put them away, concealing the fact that I had been talking to Gryffindors. Of course all of them knew that I had erased myself from Umbridge’s memory, so they all knew the consequences of me being caught. Draco had snagged my excess ingredients to and he discretely pushed them into my hands as he walked by.

“Thanks,” I whispered as Umbridge walked across the room, her heels clacking with every step. It grated on my nerves severely, and it was quite the effort to ignore it.

“Severus,” She cooed, “I need more of your Veritaserum.”

“For what?” He asked.

“Crabbe and Goyle here, found a first year Gryffindor girl wandering the corridors in the middle of the night. She won’t tell me why she was there. So, I need to persuade her.” Her voice was so light and happy that it sounded as though she was telling him she won one thousand galleons.

His mouth thinned to a single line, but still, he went and got the potion. When he handed it to her, he took care to avoid touching her. She didn’t seem to notice.

***

The next day, Hermione bumped into me in the hallway and took the opportunity to pass the tie to me. With nimble fingers, I swapped my green and silver one for the gold and red one. I squeezed Draco’s hand and parted ways with the Slytherins, joining up with the Gryffindors and sitting between Harry and Hermione. I ate breakfast with them and we planned out when the next meeting would take place. Then from her bag, Hermione pulled a smaller bag filled with galleons.

“What have you got those for?” I asked.

“They’re fake.” She explained. “See these numbers along the top, they tell the date and time of our soonest meeting. So since you’re going to be masquerading as a member of each house, it’s your job to make sure every DA member gets one. I’ve already covered all of the Gryffindors. So today during lunch you can be a Hufflepuff and during supper you can be a Ravenclaw and then you can give the Slytherins theirs back in the common room.”

“Brilliant.” I said. “And Umbridge isn’t going to find anything wrong with a galleon.”

“Exactly, they’re undetectable. And they get all warm when they update to the next meeting, so everyone is sure to notice.”

As breakfast was about to end, I noticed something on Harry’s arm. “What is that, Harry?” I asked.

“What’s what?” He returned, either clueless or pretending to be.

“That, on your arm,” I pointed to his arm where the red poked out from his robe’s sleeve. He flinched back as though I’d struck him.

“Nothing,” He muttered, once he had tugged his sleeve down to completely hide whatever it was from view.

“Right.” I said skeptically and turned back to my food. Once I was sure his guard was down, I lunged for his arm, yanking up his sleeve, to reveal the words ‘I must not tell lies’ written there. It looked like a fresh wound, rubbed raw. It looked as though someone had carved the words into his flesh over and over again with a knife. He tried to pull his arm away, but I clamped my hand around his wrist in a vice-like grip. “Did Umbridge do this?” I asked, seething. No answer. “Harry. Did. Umbridge. Do. This.” I ground out through clenched teeth. His only response was the faintest of nods.

That was the final straw.

That bitch...

Was going down.


	13. Retaliation

“I’m going to kill her!” I snarled, pacing back and forth in the Slytherin common rooms that evening. I had carried out my task of passing out all of the fake galleons and now it was time to be angry.

“Emma, come on, you don’t mean that.” Daphne pleaded.

“Yes I do. I am going to murder her, I’ll turn into flame if I have to, Draco you can turn into Snow and we can tear her head clean off.”

“Emma you don’t want to kill her. I know you, you don’t want to end somebody’s life. You aren’t a killer.” Draco said, trying to get me to sit down. I refused and continued to pace back and forth.

“You don’t get it Draco. I already am a killer, Lockhart is dead because I cleared the way to the Basilisk in the chamber, if I hadn’t, he wouldn’t have wandered in there.”

“Emma, that isn’t your fault. Voldemort released the Basilisk and Lockhart was the one stupid enough to use a broken wand, plus he was trying to erase all of your brother’s memories.” Draco argued.

“She is torturing them in detention!” I shot back. “All of those little first years who broke a rule they didn’t know existed had words carved into their arms. And they can’t go to anyone about it because she is the authority! We have to take her out!” I shouted.

“Okay, okay, yes she needs to be removed from the castle. But how about we take her down, not out, yeah?” Draco tried, “We don’t have to kill her, you don’t have to kill her. We can just, I don’t know, make her run scared or something. Or lock her in the dungeon.”

“Fine.” I grumbled, “But she’s gone.”

“Gone.” Draco agreed.

***

“We are staging a rebellion.” I said, once everyone in the DA had arrived, with a special guest appearance from Peeves, who cackled wickedly at the prospect. “Fred, George, I’ve hear that you’ve been making products for that joke shop you want to start. Well, here’s your big debut. We need chaos, as much as you can get us. Do you think you can handle that?”

The twins nodded, “Oh we can give you chaos.” Fred assured me.

“Perfect, the more the better, we want utter mayhem in the castle. Everywhere, don’t center it around one place.”

“We’ve got it covered.” George said, waving me off.

“Oh, but she’ll expel you both for sure!” Hermione cried.

“It’s alright Mione.” Fred said. “We don’t need to finish the year. Yeah? You lot like what you see in our showcase tomorrow, then just promise to buy our stuff when the shop opens and we’ll be all set. We’ll leave before she can expel us. Hermione didn’t seem to be any less weary so Fred added, softer, just for her, “It’ll be alright, promise.”

“Okay...” She said softly.

“Right, so for the rest of us, knock out any and all Inquisitorial Squad members you can find, make messes, conjure animals. Maybe borrow some of Hagrid’s nifflers, set them loose in her office and Flitch’s office.” I said.

“Filch.” Hermione corrected.

“Right, yeah, Finch’s office, her classroom. Everywhere that will be most inconvenient for her. We want it to be clear that she has lost control of the school. Write to your parents that she has lost her mind, that she is insane and terrible for the school. Get her out.”

Everyone in the room cheered.

“Everyone, remember, after first class tomorrow, so tonight is your chance to prepare, spread the word, but be careful, don’t share it with anyone who will snitch on us!”

***

I was dizzy with anticipation all throughout breakfast and our first class, buzzing with excitement. Every student in the school, aside from Crabbe, Goyle and their little gang, knew about the plan for today.

The moment the bell rang, we all launched from our seats and sprinted into the corridors. I stunned Crabbe and Goyle immediately and they fell to the floor unconscious. Somewhere from the floor above, I heard shouts of glee and shock and I knew the twins had pulled through. Everyone was casting the Avifors charm on everything in sight, causing thousands upon thousands of birds to fill the halls. I had consulted Brian Gagwilde the previous night and he had recommended that I use the Anaticula jinx which would make ducks erupt from the opponents wand no matter what spell they tried. I cast it upon every Inquisitorial Squad member I could see and watched their confusion when hoards of ducks began to spill out. Papers were flying everywhere, Peeves was unscrewing a chandelier, fireworks were going off, people were vomiting left and right, some sort of light was dripping through the ceiling, all of the portraits were singing in perfect harmony. Potions were being dumped, causing explosions and many holes in the floors. Even the castle was joining in, moving staircases to allow everyone except for Umbridge to use them.

Umbridge and Fink were on their own at this point, the whole Inquisitorial Squad was missing in action. Fink was chasing after Peeves, screaming and Umbridge was trying to get to her office. But the students had gotten there first, all of the plates had been ripped from her walls and smashed, and then a niffler was released and the door was locked once more. Umbridge was helpless to unlock it, as I had gotten her with Anaticula too.

She tried Alohomora over and over again to no avail. She only succeeded in surrounding herself with angry ducks. She made the mistake of kicking one of them and then they were all upon her, quacking angrily. And she kept trying to stupefy them, which only made more appear. It was so funny that I doubled over with laughter. A first year Hufflepuff boy was trying to break into her office, but not succeeding. I was just about to go help him when I saw Snape mouth, “Alohomora.” And the door popped open. I couldn’t help but grin at that, especially as Snape continued to stand still as a statue, as though nothing had happened.

I decided to head to the Great Hall, where I smashed all of the hourglasses that signified each house’s points for the year.

That’s when I noticed Moaning Myrtle floating just above the staff table. “You should put a sticking jinx on her chair.” Myrtle suggested. “A permanent one, so that she has to go to St. Mungo’s where they’ll have to incinerate it off of her. That’s what Olive Hornby did to be anyway.”

“Thanks, Myrtle.” I said and copied the incantation that she told me. “Say, Myrtle.” I said, brilliance struck, “Do you want to go to all of the bathrooms and plug the sinks then turn them on and leave them that way?” I asked.

She laughed gleefully and soared off through the ceiling. I ran back to Umbridge’s office and careful to avoid the niffler, repeated the permanent sticking jinx. I did the same to her chair in the Defense Against the Dark Arts classroom.

From out in the corridor I could hear shrieking. I ran out to see was was going on and found Fred and George flying down the corridor over everyone’s head, dropping stink bombs and noise makers and some sort of blackout powder. In the midst of it all, fireworks were going off and the floors were flooding.

The blackout powder wore off and everyone watched as Umbridge sprinted after the twins. I chased after them, not wanting to miss a second of the action. I got outside just in time for them to let off the biggest, loudest firework yet that erupted into one of those giant Chinese dragons and began to chase after Umbridge as though it wanted to eat her. Hermione was laughing her head off, and as Fred and George made their exits and flew by us, Fred landed a quick peck on Hermione’s smiling lips. Hermione’s fingers brushed her lips as though she wanted to catch the kiss and hold onto it forever.

***

It was the middle of the night, classes had been canceled for the rest of the week to deal with castle repairs, and so we were all in the Gryffindor common room celebrating. Umbridge had indeed start in her office chair and when she had stood up, she found that she was unable to do so, she had been shipped off to St. Mungo’s, promising to cast vengeance upon whomever had played such a reckless and dangerous prank.

I turned to grin at Harry and then he was clutching his scar and groaning in pain. He still had not mastered Occlumency so it was no issue to break into his mind, to see what he saw. And what he saw was terrible. Mr. Weasley was being attacked, mauled by something. No, not something, a snake, Voldemort’s snake, Nagini, the horcrux. And that was the ministry, they were inside of the ministry. The vision ebbed and the pain faded. I released myself from Harry’s mind, Voldemort’s mind.

Harry was looking at me, his eyes wide, “Emma-”

“I know,” I said and then quieter, “We have to tell an Order member. They can send someone, save him.”

I pivoted around, and pulled Harry towards the portrait hole, “Come on, we’ve got to tell Snape. Ginny, Ron!” I screamed and they looked in our direction and then hurried after us. Hermione, perplexed, followed too. We sprinted down the corridors and zigzagged down moving staircase after moving staircase before we finally reached Snape’s classroom. I used my wand to unlock the door and we ran through into his office.

In his office there were two other doors. One led to his supply store, the other led to his quarters.

“Professor!” I shouted, banging on the door that I knew led to his rooms. “Professor!”

The lock clicked and the door opened, the lights were on in the room beyond, it didn’t look as though he had been asleep.

“Arthur Weasley, he was in the ministry, standing in front of a door, guarding it, I think. Voldemort attacked him with the snake, he’s hurt, badly, I think he’s going to die if someone doesn’t get there soon!” I explained frantically.

“Shit,”Snape cursed and strode past us into his supply store. He dug through a drawer and pulled something out, and fiddled with it for a second. Then Remus’ head appeared, floating, detached from his body, above it.

“Severus?” Remus asked, bleary eyed.

“Arthur has been attacked, he’s going to die if someone doesn’t get to the ministry immediately.” Snape said hurriedly.

Remus turned away from us and said something over his shoulder. A moment later he turned back and said, “Kingsley and Taleus are going now. I’m going to St. Mungo’s to alert them that they will be having an emergency patient.” Then he was gone.

Snape dropped whatever the thing was into his pocket and then strode from the office. We all followed him. Ginny, Ron and Hermione looked scared out of their minds, Harry just looked confused. “Come on.” Snape said and exited the potions wing entirely. As we walked to who knew where, Snape asked, “How did you know that Arthur was attacked?”

“Harry had a vision, of Voldemort attacking him, through the snake.” I explained.

“But Harry, you’re supposed to be closing your mind!” Hermione moaned, “You said it was getting better.”

“Well I lied, alright! It isn’t getting better, I can’t do it. It’s like his mind is a part of mine and you cant block out part of your own mind!" He said, annoyed. Then he turned to face me and asked, "How did you know that that's what I saw? I didn't tell you."

All eyes turned to look at me. "I- er..." I had no idea what to say, so I decided on the truth. "I may or may not have taught myself Occlumency and Legilimency over the summer. And I may or knew you were having a vision, so I may or may not have looked inside your mind and seen what you saw." Well... mostly the truth.

"But, Professor Snape said that for Legilimency to work, you needed to be making eye contact and I had my eyes closed and my head down."

"Yeah, well I don't need to be making eye contact. I did it with Draco when he was all the way up in his dormitory and I was in the common room." I explained.

"And you taught yourself how to do that?" Snape asked.

"Yes." I said. I could tell he was trying to look into my mind to see if I was telling the truth, but I could also tell by the frown that appeared that he had failed.

"Those are strong." He commented.

"Thanks," I said.

Snape woke up McGonagall to let her know what was going on and then brought us all to the hospital wing for some calming draughts and told us to wait there for news. Then he and McGonagall disappeared, probably to get back in contact with the other Order members.


	14. The Return and Explanation

It felt like we were waiting in the hospital wing for hours without a shred of news. Snape did not return, nor did McGonagall. Madam Pomfrey even seemed to be on edge. Dobby had heard what happened and came up to visit us, Ron’s favorite cakes in tow. Ron had a thing for stress eating, and if ever there was a time to stress eat, now was it.

When I was feeling particularly emotional, I paced, back and forth and unending. Hermione worried at her nails, Harry bounced his leg and Ginny just sat there staring off into space. It eased my mind a little, seeing Dobby.

But Dobby wasn’t the only surprise appearance. Soon after he arrived with the cakes, Dumbledore strode into the hospital wing.

“You’re back!” I exclaimed.

“Indeed, I am.” He said, his voice kind and that twinkle brighter than ever in his eyes.

“You can’t ever leave again! Everything was a complete mess, is a complete mess.” I said, still I did not stop pacing.

“I noticed that on my way up here.” He said, “Whatever did happen to Dolores Umbridge?”

“Someone, and I have absolutely no idea who did this, but someone decided to put a permanent sticking charm on her office desk’s chair and she happened to sit in it, what are the odds. So she had to go to St. Mungo’s to get it removed. It was quite entertaining watching her waddle thorough the whole castle.”

“Surely someone helped her?” He asked, we both knew the answer to that.

“Oh no, no one could, we were all two busy trying to fix all of the damage the Weasley twins caused.”

“And yet, the castle still seemed to be in utter upheaval.” This talking was good, helping me to keep my mind off of the stressors, I could already feel my feet starting to gradually slow their pacing.

“Huh, I suppose we just aren’t strong enough to clean up the mess. I think we will need a really good witch to do it, shame, Umbridge seems to be the only one to fit the bill. Guess we’ll have to wait until she gets back to take out the portable swamp and clear out the nifflers and screw the chandelier back in and get all of those educational decrees rehung on the walls.” I tutted my tongue, “Poor woman, it will take her forever to do it on her own, especially when all her wand does is spit out ducks.”

“Ah anaticula, classic. I used that a great number of times in my youth.” He said.

Just then, the hospital wing door burst open behind him and Sirius and Remus strode in. They wasted no time in telling us, “Arthur is alright, he’s stable in St. Mungo’s. Molly and Bill are with him now. Charlie is on his way.” Remus said.

Sirius looked around, “Where are Fred and George?”

“It seems that they have decided that the school life just wasn’t for them anymore, they’ve taken off and left a giant mess for Dolores Umbridge to clean up.” Dumbledore explained.

I turned around to see Ron still snacking on cakes, that had to be at least his sixth one. I raised my eyebrows at him and with his mouth full, defensively he said, “What? They’re really good!”

I punched him lightly in the arm and said, “Classy. Real classy.”

He offered me a cake filled grin. I scrunched my nose at him and turned away. I hugged Sirius and Remus each in turn. “It’s good to see you two, I’ve missed you.”

“We’ve missed you too kiddo.” Sirius said. Then over my head he bellowed, “Get over here Harry.”

Obediently he joined us.

“So, the two of you hardly ever write to us, honestly Tonks has gotten more letters from you than the both of us put together, what’s been happening here?”

Harry and I looked at each other and then I spoke, “I started a rebellion.”

“Did you now?” Asked Sirius, laughing. Remus just seemed to be exasperated, in a fond, fatherly sort of way. “And what did this rebellion entail?”

“Getting Umbridge out of here before she hurts someone even worse or completely destroys the school.” I began. “I mean, she already took away Quidditch and all clubs. Our curfew was six o’clock, we had to be in our dorm rooms. We weren’t allowed to engage with other houses. We couldn’t go anywhere except for meals, classes and our common rooms. It was insanity.”

“What do you mean by ‘before she hurts someone even worse’?” Asked Dumbledore, just as Snape and McGonagall reentered the hospital wing. Harry stiffened.

“Come on, Harry, show them, they need to know.” I urged, but he didn’t move.

“Harry?” Dumbledore asked.

Slowly, as though he was a robot, or a marionette on strings, he lifted his sleeve. In this lighting, the words etched into his skin showed even more starkly.

I must not tell lies.

Snape grabbed up his arm and examined the scars closely. After a moment he released Harry’s arm, turned to Dumbledore and said, “That was done by a cursed quill.” He turned back to Harry and said, “Right?”

“Er-” Harry began awkwardly.

“She made you write that over and over with one of her quills, and you didn’t need ink, and as you wrote it, the wounds got deeper?”

Harry nodded. “Yes, sir.”

“Like I said, cursed quill. The ministry banned them years ago.”Snape said.

“So, Umbridge was using them illegally?” Hermione asked.

“Them?” Asked Snape, “There were multiple?”

“Yeah, Fred and George were producing and handing out candy that would numb because everyone was scared that they’d get in trouble if they went to Madam Pomfrey and Umbridge found out.” She explained.

That was news to me. “Wait, you knew that this was happening?” I asked.

“Yeah,” Hermione said, clearly ashamed, as Ron and Ginny nodded glumly.

“How did I not know about this?” I asked.

“Well...” Hermione began, “Because you’re a Slytherin, and after you erased everyone fighting her and knocking her out from her mind, you all pretended to be perfect. Everyone in Slytherin pretended to be a part of her stupid Inquisitorial Squad, so it didn’t really happen you guys. And I mean, she was a Slytherin, so she gave you all preferential treatment. But the rest of the houses had to be careful and sometimes we weren’t, especially the younger ones. You should see how many of the first years have ‘I will not be tardy’ engraved into their arms. It’s in humane and cruel. And you should have heard the way she talked during her lessons, it was like she was just waiting to join up with the death eaters. She could have been Voldemort himself, in disguise and I wouldn’t have been surprised.” Hermione finished.

I was furious with myself, how could I have been so blind to all of this shit happening, especially to the little ones.

“What are you talking about?” Asked Remus, “Emma should have heard the way she talked? Weren’t you there, Emma? And what does she mean by ‘you erased them?’”

Shit.

It seemed like the whole truth was coming out tonight.

“No, I wasn’t there.” I said. “I went to the first two classes. Then in the third class, I started arguing with her and the rest of the class joined in. I tried to walk out and she locked me in, locked us all in and I don’t do well with being trapped, so I knocked her out and erased her memories of the entire class because she had already given half of us detentions. We all ditched. Then I went back later and broke into her office, knocked her out again and erased every memory she had of me and I took my file and my name from the attendance list.” I explained. “Then during every class since, I went down to the chamber of secrets to practice spells, or I did homework in the common room.”

Sirius laughed, “Well, aren’t you the trouble maker?”

Even Snape seemed to be slightly impressed. Remus just seemed worried. I knew why he was worried, I had attacked a teacher... twice and erased her memories... twice.

“Does anyone know that you did this?” Dumbledore asked.

“Everyone knows that I did this.” I said softly. “At least, all of the fifth year Slytherins and fifth year Gryffindors do.”

Remus pinched the bridge of his nose and sighed. “Emma, you can’t just go around attacking teachers and breaking and entering, she could press charges if she wanted to Em, you could get in serious trouble. And that’s not to mention whatever action the school is going to take.” Remus looked to Dumbledore when he said the last sentence.

“The consequences of Emma’s choices and actions lay under the jurisdiction of Professor Snape.” Dumbledore said and all eyes turned to face him.

“Is it safe to assume that you’re the one who locked the Inquisitorial Squad and Umbridge out of the Slytherin common room?” Snape asked.

“Yeah.” I said, “But that was kind of an accident. I jokingly told the wall that it would be great if it could bar their entry, but I didn’t think the wall would listen.”

Dumbledore gave me an odd look, “The castle listened to you?”

“I guess so, yeah.” I said, “What, is that like a big deal or something?”

“Only the direct heirs are meant to be able to do that.” Hermione said. “As in each of the founders eldest children. No one else, so once those four children died, that power vanished for good. Even if one of them was a ghost here, they still wouldn’t be able to do it.”

Oh, well that explained it then. Salazar had done it, kept them away. He had probably been controlling the stairs too. But the others couldn’t know that.

I shrugged, “Odd.” Then I turned back to Snape. “So, am I expelled?” I tried for casualty, and I think I pulled it off, but inside, I was terrified. I didn’t know what I would do if I was expelled.

“No,” Snape said after a brief glance at Dumbledore. The look didn’t slip past my notice. “Just, Remus is right, you can’t just go around doing things like that anymore.”

“Wait what?” I was confused, “No detention? Nothing?”

“I don’t think any of you should be punished for anything you did against Dolores, I think she punished all of you enough already.”

I let out a sigh of relief. “Thank you.”

Then, in my mind, was Draco’s voice. ‘Are you alright?’

‘Yes, I’m okay. Dumbledore is back. Harry had a vision of Voldemort using the snake, Nagini, the horcrux, to try and kill Arthur Weasley. We had to alert the Order, Arthur is okay, they got to him in time.’ I returned.

‘So Harry still hasn’t learned Occlumency? Maybe it’s a good thing that he hasn’t, I mean if he had, Weasley would be dead. I may or may not have gotten worried when you didn’t come back. So I checked the map and saw that you were in the hospital wing with the Weasleys, your brother, your parents, er- I mean, sorry my thoughts aren’t really filtered, Hermione, Snape, McGonagall and Dumbledore. I thought you were in trouble. I wanted to talk to you, I’m right outside. Can I come in?’

‘You probably shouldn’t. I’ll come out.’

I snapped back to the conversation around me in the hospital wing. “Emma?” Sirius was asking. “Emma, are you alright?”

I shook my head a little to clear my thoughts. “Sorry, Draco wanted to know if I was alright.”

“You were talking to Draco, just now?” Asked Hermione, “How?”

“We learned how to put thoughts into each other’s heads.” I explained. “I’ve got to go.”

I hurried out of the hospital wing and straight into Draco’s arms. “Hey.” He said softly.

“Hey.” I said back. “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to worry you. I should have told you what was happening.”

“No, Em, of course you didn’t tell me. You were too far anyway, but there was so much going on, you needed to save Arthur.” He said.

I sighed, “Thanks for understanding.”

“Emma, a word?” A voice behind me asked. I whipped around to see Dumbledore standing there. “In my office please.”

“Sure.” I said.

This was it, he knew everything. That was the implication of his stare. I was done for.


	15. Confessions and Revelations

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey everyone!
> 
> TW: Vomiting
> 
> If you don’t want to read that part then just read until you reach *** and then scroll through until you reach the next *** 
> 
> The end notes will explain what happened in that section so I recommend reading the end section before finishing the chapter if you skip the vomiting part.

I followed him to his office in silence, my heart thumping a million beats per minute in my chest.

I felt one thousand years old as I climbed the winding staircase. 

Dumbledore settled himself behind his desk and scrutinized me for a long moment. “Have a seat.” He extended his arm, gesturing to the chair I was standing beside. 

I sunk down into it slowly, never breaking eye contact.

“I know you stole the books,” He said, nodding over to where he had kept them safe. “What I don’t know, is why.”

I decided to go with the truth... with the omission of some details. “I know that the diary was a horcrux. I wanted to know if Voldemort had made others. And he has made more. His snake for one thing, you know the one that attacked Arthur.” I tried to think back, what else was there? I snapped my fingers, “Oh and there’s this ring, it was like his family’s ring or something like that and it’s in their family shack.” I snapped again. “The Gaunt family shack, that’s what it was called.”

Dumbledore squinted at me, “How do you know that.”

I shrugged. “The same way I know that he intended on splitting his soul into seven pieces, so six horcruxes. One piece is in his actual body, of course, then there’s the diary, the ring, the snake, the locket and that just leaves two others that we don’t know.”

Dumbledore was staring at me as though he was seeing me clearly for the first time. “And does Draco know all of this?” 

“Yes, he’s been helping me with it, with figuring it out.” I said.

“Okay, and you said you’ve been practicing magic in the Chamber? Has he been with you for that too?” Dumbledore asked.

“Yes, we duel each other for practice.” I said. Dumbledore nodded, clearly thinking something through. “What I don’t really get, is how Harry was able to see the snake attacking Arthur. Like you say that the killing curse backfiring when Harry was a baby, gave him like this connection with Voldemort. But that doesn’t make sense. I mean, there have been instances of similar things in the past, and none of those people could look into each other’s minds. And it seems like the connection is one way, Voldemort seems to have no idea that Harry can see. This... this connection seems to be one way. Like Harry can see when Voldemort is in pain or feeling some strong emotion, but Voldemort can’t see Harry at all. But now, Harry can see the snake?”

“I believe that Voldemort was possessing the snake, and that is why Harry could see it.”

“So it had nothing to do with the snake itself?”

“That would be correct.” That meant the connection was just between Voldemort and Harry. I could work with that. 

I wondered if Voldemort knew that the locket was gone. “When a horcrux is destroyed, can Voldemort feel that it’s gone, does it hurt him?”

“No, the horcrux is a part of his soul that has been separated from the rest of him. It acts as a sort of tether, holding him to life. In a way, it can feel him, hold onto him, keep him here. But he can’t feel it if that tether breaks. Except for if he’s dying, he will feel that lack of a tether.”

***

“I just don’t get it.” I said, laying on the floor of the common room. It was three days after Arthur had been attacked, after I had spoken with Dumbledore. 

I was joined by the whole gang. This morning I had asked Sirius to tell the rest of them that Harry was my brother, before he returned to number twelve Grimmauld Place. So now, all of the fifth year Slytherins knew except for Crabbe and Goyle. “How the hell is Harry able to see into Voldemort’s mind, regardless of the distance that separates them? It doesn’t make sense. The most powerful Legilimens to ever live couldn’t do that, and Harry can do it without even trying.”

“Are you sure it’s Legilimency?” Blaise asked.

“No, I don’t know what it is, nothing really fits.” I sighed and threw my arm over my eyes, blocking out the light. 

Was it Legilimency? I had no idea. I thought back to everything I knew. In the back of my mind, I knew there was an answer in there, I just needed to pull it forward. What separated this case from all of the others that I had read about? There was only one thing I could think of. At the time of the spell rebounding, Voldemort had already created horcruxes, so obviously when he had died, he hadn’t actually died. All of the others who had enacted the killing curse and had it rebound- they had all died. That was why there was no psychic connection between them.

It’s like his mind is a part of mine. What if there was literally a part of Voldemort’s mind in Harry’s? No. Not his mind. His soul. Harry was a horcrux. Harry was a horcrux. Harry was a horcrux. “He’s a horcrux.” I breathed out. I sat up. “My brother is a horcrux.”

Hadn’t Dumbledore basically said that the horcruxes could feel Voldemort but he couldn’t feel them? And wasn’t that exactly what was happening with Harry? To make a horcrux, you needed to kill someone and then your soul would tear in half and you’d be able to put that part into something else. Voldemort had killed both of my parents before he went after Harry. His soul was split and ready to me moved into another vessel. Then he had been hit with the killing curse, but with those horcruxes already made, his soul would live, only his body would die. Those two pieces of his soul would flee, but not together. 

The conscious bit of his soul, the bit that was in his body now, would find something to possess and move from vessel to vessel. Likely animals, it was all that made sense. Since this slice had not been equipped to live in a vessel that wasn’t his body, anything he possessed would die after a little while. That part was the part that went to the back of Quirrell’s head during Harry’s first year. 

Then there was the other part of his soul that had to go somewhere right? And if there was no consciousness within that bit of soul, it would go into the closest thing with a consciousness, right? So, if my theory was correct, that bit had attached itself to Harry, had made him into an accidental horcrux.

And there was only one way to destroy a horcrux...

Damage its container beyond repair.

For Voldemort to die for good, so did my brother.

I stood up. I could feel bile rising in my throat. Of everyone there, only Draco knew what a horcrux was. Only he knew the implication of my words.

He stood and tried to calm me, but there was no calming me. I tried to run, but before I could make it three steps I was doubled over, vomiting all over the floor. 

“Hey, hey, Em,” Draco was there, pulling my hair back from my face. He slipped the tie from my wrist and looped it around my hair. As he rubbed soothing circles on my back, he helped me to walk towards the stairs.

We had just made if past the first years hallway, when I threw up again. Daphne was just behind us and she siphoned it away, just as she’d likely down to the vomit on the floor in the common room.

All of the fourth years and up had their own bathrooms off of their dorm rooms, so Draco led me through our dorm room and into it. He sat me down next to the toilet and then disappeared. he came back moments later with a cloth, which he wet under the sink and dabbed across my forehead. I threw up again, and then again. I could feel the tears sliding down my face and then I was full on sobbing. My stomach lurched again, but there was nothing left to come up, so I just sat there gagging and dry heaving.

“Shhhh, hey, hey, hon, you’re alright, it’s okay, just breathe, okay? Just breathe.” Draco tried, he was crouched beside me. He used a second cloth to wipe my face clean.

Behind me, I could hear people moving. It was Daphne and Pansy. Daphne asked, “Was it something she ate?”

“Or does she have a bug or something?”

“None of the above.” Draco said. “Voldemort split his soul into a bunch of pieces, so to kill him, all of those pieces need to be destroyed. Which means killing whatever they’re in. Emma has just come to the conclusion that one of them is in her brother.”

Daphne gasped. “No, it can’t be.”

***

I had everything figured out. I had made Draco, Pansy and Daphne promise that they would say nothing to anyone. The others knew not to say anything as well. And I was going to pretend I knew nothing. 

I wasn’t going to tell Harry, not now, not ever. 

And maybe it was selfish of me, no, it was definitely, without a doubt, selfish. 

But I was selfish and I could not give up this thing, this most important thing in my life.

Not even to save thousands of others. 

And yeah, it made me the worse person on the planet, but I would never tell Harry what he was. I would let him live out his life, I would protect him from Voldemort, for as long as I could. I would keep my brother alive, no matter the cost.

***

“Okay, so, the patronus, there’s corporeal and non-corporeal, blah blah blah, you already know the background to a patronus. Just think of a really happy memory you have, okay?”

“Yeah, Em, I think I’ve got it.” Draco said. We were in the common room and it was four in the morning. Later today, I would be going home to number twelve Grimmauld Place for Christmas break. The Weasleys and Hermione were all going to be there too. Unfortunately, Draco had decided to sit this one out and was staying here for Christmas.

“Expecto Patronum!” He said. Nothing happened. “Expecto Patronum!” Louder this time. And there it was, non-corporeal, but there.

“Hey, there it is.” I said, smiling at him, “Just practice over break and you’ll get it.”

He looked sad, so very sad. “Yeah, I’ll practice, of course.”

“Hey, what’s wrong? You can come with me... or I can stay here if you don’t want to be alone.”

He sighed, “No, no, I’ll be alright, go, see your family.” 

And then I understood. “You miss your parents.” It wasn’t a question, but he nodded anyway. I crossed the room and hugged him. “I’m sorry, it sucks. Hopefully this will all be over soon and you’ll be able to see them again.”

After an hour and a half of practicing, we finally deemed it late enough to get ready for breakfast. At seven we went down to it, but I didn’t feel much like eating.

And then it was time to go. I kissed Draco goodbye and boarded the Hogwarts Express. Before I left, I gave Draco one of those gems that the Order members used to contact each other. I had one too, that way we would be able to talk whenever we wanted.

I sat in silence on the train. Harry, Hermione and Ron talked the whole time, leaving me alone.

I had promised myself that I wouldn’t check the map, it was creepy and obsessive and I shouldn’t do it. But there was a tiny voice in the back of my mind whispering ‘What if he’s dead?’ 

Finally I gave in and pulled the map out of my trunk. I unfolded it and whispered, “I solemnly swear that I am up to no good.” The map revealed itself to me and I scanned it. He wasn’t in the common room. He wasn’t in our room, he wasn’t in my old room. He wasn’t in the great hall or the library or any of the classrooms or corridors or the grounds or even in Salazar’s mansion. He was nowhere at all. He wasn’t at Hogwarts, that or he was dead. 

Frantically, I stumbled out of the compartment and into an empty one. I activated the gem and hissed, “Draco.” His head appeared, floating about a foot away from my own.

I sighed in relief, “Hey Em, are you alright?”

“Yeah, I just, sorry, I don’t know. I was bored. Distract me?”

“Sure, but we’ve got to be quiet or Madam Pince will have a conniption.”

“Oh so you’re in the library?” I asked, glancing down at the map.

“Yeah.” Liar. 

“Okay, I’ll let you go then.”

“Bye babe.”

“Bye.”

And then he was gone. 

Why the hell would he lie? Where was he, that needed to be such a big secret? Whatever it was, it couldn’t be anything good.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Summary of TW part:  
> Emma figures out that Harry is a horcrux and gets very upset and sick because of it  
> _________________________  
> I hope you enjoyed the chapter! And the next one will be up soon!


	16. Visits

It was late when we got off the Hogwarts Express at King’s Cross Station. Taleus, Kingsley, and Moody were there, waiting to escort us back to Grimmauld Place. But first, we would meet Molly, Bill and Charlie at St. Mungo’s to visit Arthur.

It was so late, hardly anyone was there. Poor Arthur, he was so pale, his neck covered in scars that disappeared down beneath his shirt collar. He was sleeping, or so I thought. But he’d heard our footsteps and his eyes opened. A tired smile broke across his lips and he said, “Kids!”

More footsteps were approaching us, but no one else seemed to take any notice of them as Ron said, “Hey dad.” I tilted my head, just a little, focusing on those steps. There was one set, and another, and one more still. Three people heading towards us.

“How are you feeling Mr. Weasley?” Hermione asked.

“Better, much better than I have been.” He turned to face Harry and I. “I heard that it was thanks to you two that I am alive. Minerva and Severus said that you had a vision and alerted them, so thank you.” I offered him a small smile, neither of us said anything at all. Luckily, Arthur took no notice, too busy talking to Ron and Ginny.

Molly, Bill and Charlie strode in, carrying plates of food with them. Molly set down her plate on Arthur’s bedside table and embraced each of us in turn. “Oh, Hermione, Harry, Emma, Ron, Ginny. It’s so good to see you, I’ve missed you so much.”

I shifted my weight and bumped my side lightly against Harry’s. Once I had his attention, I whispered, “We should go, let them catch up.” I gestured to the Weasleys, all crowded around Arthur’s sickbed. He nodded and we slipped from the room. Hermione joined us in the hall moments later.

“I’m so glad that he’s okay.” She whispered.

“Me too.” I agreed. I turned to Kingsley, Taleus and Moody who had been waiting out here all along. “Can you take us back to Grimmauld Place?” I asked them.

Taleus nodded and stepped forward. “I’ll take you there.”

“I’ll go too,” Moody said gruffly, “Can’t have Potter traveling with just one auror.”

***

The second we got home, I flung myself into Remus’s arms. I knew I had just seen him not that long ago, but I had still missed him. The moment we parted, I hugged Sirius. Tonks hobbled into the front entry and offered me a one armed hug. She was starting to get really big. I couldn’t wait for her to have her baby, I loved children so much, babies especially.

She kissed Taleus, tipping over an umbrella stand in the process. I flinched back when it clattered to the ground. It was loud, so loud. Sure enough, Sirius’s mum started to shriek, calling us blood traitors and mudbloods. Together, Sirius and Remus heaved the curtains shut again.

I thought back to the permanent sticking charm that Moaning Myrtle had shown me. Perhaps it could work on these curtains too. It was worth a try at least. I cast the charm on each curtain in turn.

“What did you do?” Whispered Taleus.

“I don’t know if I did anything, hang on.” I whispered back. “Walburga!” I called, cringing at my loudest. Everyone tensed up and froze in place, staring at the closed curtains, waiting for her to begin her shouting again, but nothing happened. I waited a minute and then kicked the umbrella stand over. Still nothing. I allowed myself to relax a little. “Remind me to thank Moaning Myrtle.” I said to no one in particular, and strode from the hall. I climbed the stairs and settled my trunk in Regulus’s old room. It was strange being here without Draco. I kept glancing toward the window, waiting for him to climb through. But of course, he never did.

I wanted to call him again, but I didn’t want to be clingy. I knew it wasn’t healthy for me to be so codependent. Even so, I watched the gem for several minutes, hoping he would call me.

He didn’t.

I picked up the gem to call him, but thought better of it and dumped the gem into my trunk. I settled for the second best thing; Emmett. Draco had given him to me, so I picked him up and put him in my lap. He immediately began to purr and rub his face against my chin. I scratched behind his ears until he curled up and fell asleep.

Latte had taken to swatted at Honey’s tail and trying to pounce on her. “Latte, be nice to her.” I warned him. But he continued his attack. “Fine, but if she decides to attack you back, it’s your own fault so don’t come crying to me.”

***

Christmas morning was quite the ordeal. I had never really been able to celebrate Christmas before. Petunia and Vernon had always just given us a pair of socks or something equally mundane and then fawned over Dudley for the remainder of the day.

So this was really something special. Sirius was beyond excited too. There wasn’t a single moment in which he wasn’t smiling from ear to ear. I couldn’t blame him, after being trapped in Azkaban for twelve years, Christmas would be extra special to him now.

The Weasleys would be joining us, as would Hermione, of course and the entirety of the Order. Even Snape’s presence couldn’t serve to spoil Sirius’s good mood.

Kreacher had prepared hundreds of pancakes, waffles, eggs, sausages and fruit bowls which filled the kitchen. Sirius had been so pleased by it that he had even given Kreacher something of Regulus’s that apparently hadn’t been thrown away. Kreacher had broken down into tears and had had to disappear into his cupboard to collect himself.

We had eaten breakfast quickly, the only sounds that filled the room were that of utensils scraping against plates.

Then gifts were exchanged, which was more chaotic than I had ever known possible. Everyone had gotten something for everyone else. Except for those of us who had been trapped at Hogwarts, we hadn’t been able to get anything for anyone. Except for Hermione, apparently. She somehow had something for each person. She had been in contact with Remus, right under Umbridge’s nose and he had told her exactly who would be here today. Then, still right under Umbridge’s nose, she had managed to order suitable things to be delivered to the house.

She had gifted me a bottomless bag and bought one for herself. It was by far the most practical of my presents, especially as it came with a strong cloaking spell, that protected it from the view of those who did not possess magic. So, Flig or whatever the hell the caretaker’s name was, wouldn’t be able to see anything inside it.

Halfway through the day, Fred and George arrived, supporting Arthur between them. They settled him into a chair and then rushed over to hug their mother. After they parted, she glared at them sternly. “That was very irresponsible of the two of you! I mean leaving Hogwarts- the safest place for you- with You-Know-Who out there! And you haven’t even finished you N.E.W.T.S. If you tried, instead of doing this... this... joke magic you could be really good!”

Flitwick piped up, “I thought that swamp of yours was really something. Umbridge will have quite the time trying to get rid of it.”

Molly looked scandalized at his words, but she said nothing as the twins began conversing with Flitwick, explaining to him how they had done it.

Molly tried again, “Dumbledore, would you allow Fred and George to return to Hogwarts to finish up their final year?”

“Certainly.”

“Mum!” Fred groaned, “We can’t go back, we’ve already bought a premises in Diagon Alley, for our joke shop! And we’re of age, so you can’t make us.”

“You’ve got premises, that quickly?” Tonks asked, “Congratulations!”

“Thanks,” George said, turning to grin at her. That only served to incense Molly further.

***

I was in the kitchen, leaned up against the counter, a cup of hot cocoa clutched in my hands, as I attempted to bring warmth back into my chilled fingers. Tonks was seated at the table, her feet propped up on an adjacent chair. Hermione, Ginny and Fleur were there as well, all seated around the table. It was still Christmas, but barely, the days would shift within the hour.

“So, I’ve been thinking a lot about the wedding.” Tonks began, looking to each of us in turn. “And I was wondering if the four of you would like to be bridesmaids at it?” She asked hopefully. Then she looked at me and continued, “And I was hoping that you would be my maid of honor, Emma.”

“Of course!” I burst out, beyond thrilled by the prospect.

“I would be honored to be a bridesmaid for your wedding.” Fleur said happily.

“Yes, yes!” Hermione said.

Ginny grinned and said, “I’d love to.”

Tonks beamed at us, “Oh thank you all so much! I can’t wait.”

We continued to talk, trying to figure out what color for the bridesmaid dresses and other wedding details, until fatigue threatened to claim us. We soon decided it was time to go to sleep.

Just as I was passing through the doorway to leave the kitchen, Tonks stopped me. “One more thing Emma?”

“Sure, what is it?” I replied.

“Taleus and I... well we thought that you might want to be the godmother to our son?” It came out like a question. I took a moment to really absorb the words, and when I finally did understand the meaning behind them, my heart swelled inside my chest.

“Oh my god, Tonks! Yes! Yes! Yes! Yes! A million yeses!” I laughed.

***

Over the rest of the break, I periodically checked the map and never once did I see Draco upon it. He had lied to be, there was no question about it in my mind. And my suspicions had been confirmed further when I had asked Dumbledore if Draco was on the list of people staying at Hogwarts. He hadn’t been. Dumbledore had just assumed that I was hiding Draco in my room again, and I wished that was the case.

Even with Draco’s lies in mind, I refused to assume the worst. But that didn’t mean the worst hadn’t crossed my mind, and my nightmares. The good dreams became scattered, fewer and farther between. I would wake up in a cold sweat, unable to recall what I had dreamt of.

So, the day I bordered the train to return to Hogwarts, I was determined to find him. I knew he would be here somewhere, he had to be. I started at the very front and worked my way back, checking every compartment.

And there he was, in the very last one. I slid open the door loudly and pushed a thought into his mind. ‘Liar.’ His head snapped up and his eyes widened, like a deer caughtin the headlights.

“Emma-” He began, but I cut him off with my mind.

‘No. Don’t you Emma me. Are you okay?’

“Yes,” He said softly as I slid the door shut and settled myself across from him, propping my back against the wall and stretching out my legs. “I’m fine.”

‘Okay, then I am mad. Where were you? Why didn’t you just tell me the truth?’

“I went home, to the manor, I wanted to see my mum. I got lucky, Voldemort wasn’t there. He was trying to get something, and by the way the death eaters were talking, he was unsuccessful. I didn’t tell you because I was afraid that you’d talk sense into me, that you’d convince me not to go back. But I needed to see her.” Draco said, silently pleading with his eyes for me to understand.

I sighed. As much as I wanted to be angry with him, I knew that if the roles were reversed, I would have done the exact same thing. Emmett leapt up onto Draco’s lap and without knowing it, Draco began to scratch him just behind the ears. Emmett was purring so loudly that the sound echoed throughout the compartment.

How the hell could I stay mad?


	17. Dumbledore’s Agenda

The next morning, when classes were to begin for the second semester, we received a nasty surprise.

Umbridge was back, unstuck from that chair and angrier than ever before. It would seem that the teachers had been suspecting that she would come back, for they had neglected to clean up the mess made by my rebellion and the Weasley twin’s products. All of the teachers feigned ignorance when it came to how to fix any given problem, leaving all of the work for Umbridge to complete. She had been forced to cancel Defense Against the Dark Arts indefinitely. She said they would resume once all of Hogwarts issues were taken care of.

That left everyone else with some extra free time. It was no different from the usual for me of course. Dumbledore had decided to tell Umbridge that I had been homeschooled for the first half of the year, but now my parents had switched me to Hogwarts. That way, I would have to attend class while not getting into trouble for having skipped the first half of the year.

Draco and I were using our free period to catch up on some rest in our dorm room. Draco had his eyes closed but his breathing wasn't slow enough for him to be sleeping. Meanwhile, I was entertaining myself by watching the battle that was occurring on the floor. Latte and Honey were really going at it... again. Latte would pounce on Honey, only to be pushed off by Honey’s tail not so gently whacking him in the face. The cycle would repeat over and over, with Emmett curled up beside me, blinking at them bleary eyed. The both of us were rather exasperated with the pair of them.

Someone cleared their throat within the room. I sat up, looking from side to side. Someone cleared their throat again and this time I was able to pinpoint the source. Brian Gagwilde had slipped, unnoticed, back into his portrait.

“Yes?” I asked, raising a brow at him.

“Oh so now you’re paying attention? Should I wait for your boyfriend or just get on with it?” He asked rather snootily.

“Someone missed their nap,” I cooed to him, “Is that why you’re so grumpy or are you just hungry?”

He glared at me, “Not all of us have the time to lounge around as we please.”

“Then get to the point. Tell me why you’re here.” He glared at me for another long moment without saying anything. I gave him another thirty seconds before I spoke again, “Well?”

He groaned and then sighed and then finally, he answered, “Dumbledore was gone all of yesterday and last night. He returned about an hour ago with a ring. He had it all wrapped up in a cloth. Salazar and I believe that it is the Gaunt family ring, one of Voldemort’s horcruxes.”

“What has he done with it?” I asked.

“One moment.” Brian said. Moments later, he returned, “He put it on his desk, and he has just been staring at it, he has done nothing, he seems to be contemplating something. He’s got the sword of Gryffindor right next to it.”

“Do you think the sword of Gryffindor is capable of destroying a horcrux?” I asked him. It was made one thousand years ago, by goblins, out of pure silver. But to my knowledge, silver was not capable of damaging something beyond repair. Perhaps it was enchanted?

“Salazar doesn’t think so, at least it was not capable of doing such a task whilst Godric was alive. But another wizard could have done something to it to make it stronger.”

“Make it stronger.” I whispered, more to myself than to anyone else. “Hang on.” I began to pace back and forth around the room, wracking my brain. Then I remembered. “The sword was goblin made, right?”

“Yes.”

“Well, most goblin made weapons absorb that which makes them stronger. So, the sword of Gryffindor would have absorbed Basilisk venom, back when Harry killed it. And Basilisk venom can destroy a horcrux.”

“You are a very clever girl, Emma.” Brian said and then he was gone, leaving his portrait bare.

Behind me, Draco stretched and slid off of the bed. “Oh, so you are awake.” I said, feigning annoyance.

“Sorry,” He mumbled, scratching the back of his neck. “But in my defense, I think I’m only half awake.” He rubbed his eyes and shook his head back and forth as if trying to dispel the exhaustion that remained. “At least he knows it’s cursed, I don’t think the school would last without Dumbledore, especially with Umbridge here and ready to jump in at any moment.”

I shuddered involuntarily, “I think Voldemort would go out of hiding and begin killing left and right if Dumbledore was gone. I mean, Dumbledore is the only one who Voldemort is truly afraid of. Like Harry is this vague far off threat, but Voldemort is sure he can defeat him. With Dumbledore, he’s actually afraid he might lose.”

“And he’s right to be afraid, I mean, from what I have heard, Dumbledore can be pretty scary when he wants to be. The question is, why hasn’t Dumbledore destroyed the damn horcrux already?”

“No idea.” I said.

***

Over the next month, Brian gave Draco and I daily updates about Dumbledore’s progress with the ring. Which largely consisted of nothing happening. Dumbledore still had yet to destroy the ring.

“What is he waiting for?” I asked one evening when Draco and I were curled into a corner of the common room, doing our homework.

“What is who waiting for?” He returned.

“Dumbledore, why hasn’t he destroyed the ring yet? What is he waiting for?”

“I don’t know, Em. I wish I had an answer for you, but I’m just as in the dark as you are here.”

“Ugh, I know, maybe I should talk to him? Or just steal the ring and get on with it myself. What do you think?”

Draco raised his eyebrows at me. “You barely got away with stealing from Dumbledore the first time, do you really want to try doing it again? I don’t think that that is really smart. If he hasn’t gotten rid of the horcrux yet, he has to have his reasons for it. I think we should stay out of it. I mean, there will be questions, if you barge in there knowing about him having the ring and knowing he has had it for months and not destroyed it. And then Dumbledore is going to know that we have been spying on him. He’s brilliant, how long do you think it will take him to figure out that it’s one of his portraits?”

So, I left it alone. But then February was gone and with it the snow began to ebb away. Yet, the ring was still intact. Brian stopped visiting, with the promise that he would let us know when it was taken care of. March faded into April and I was growing impatient.

With the start of May, I had had enough, and decided it was high time to take matters into my own hands. I would go to Dumbledore’s office under the pretense of possessing some complaint about Umbridge, then I would pretend to notice the sword and ring settled side by side and confront him about it. Hopefully that would keep him from growing suspicious.

I was about to head to his office when I realized that he might not be in his office at all. I slid the map out from my desk and unfolded it. “I solemnly swear that I am up to no good.” It revealed itself to me and my eyes flitted to Dumbledore’s office immediately. He was not inside it, but rather in his quarters which branched directly off of it. Why was he in his quarters in the middle of the day? That’s when I noticed that he was not alone. Instead, he was joined by Gellert Grindelwald.

Oh shit.

Gellert Grindelwald was the most cruel and dangerous dark wizard to ever walk the Earth, aside from Voldemort, of course. I had no idea what to do with this information. My first instinct was to go tell Dumbledore, but he, of course was not an option, seeing as they were in the same room. Surely, Dumbledore knew that Gellert was there.

Gellert must have been there to enact his revenge, for it had been Dumbledore who defeated him and put him in prison all those years ago.

Should I go and try to help him or just wait to see what would happen?

I was a fourteen year old for God’s sake, what could I do against one of the deadliest wizards in all of history? Perhaps I should get Harry and my friends and make a run for it. Get out of the castle while we still had the chance, in case Gellert was able to overtake Dumbledore. In the end, I decided on just waiting it out.

I stared at the map intently, waiting for something, anything to happen. Very anticlimactically, Dumbledore strode from the room and into his office. He stopped at the place where I assumed his desk would be, stood there for a moment and then returned to Gellert.

Brian ran into his frame, “Emma- Where’s Draco?- Oh it doesn’t matter, Dumbledore has moved the sword and the ring! He picked them up and walked right out of the room!”

What the hell was Dumbledore doing?

“Quick! Go back, you have to keep watch, see if he returns or does something else!” I said frantically, shooing Brian away. He heeded my words and dashed from the portrait.

I refocused my attention on the map. I was incredibly annoyed that I couldn’t see what was going on. Suddenly there there were panic-stricken movements. Dumbledore and Gellert were moving quickly throughout the room. Were they dueling? I couldn’t tell. But then Dumbledore was back in his office and his name was flickering in and out on the map.

He was dying. Dumbledore was dying. Another movement on the map caught my eye, Snape, on the floor below, had broken into a run. Then he was up the stairs and nearing Dumbledore’s office. Did he know that something was wrong? Maybe Dumbledore had used his gem to contact Snape.

Moments later, Snape was standing beside Dumbledore in his office. Dumbledore’s name stopped flickering, but remained ever so slightly duller than Snape’s. That was rather puzzling, until Brian reappeared a moment later to answer my silent question. “He destroyed the ring with the sword, the horcrux is gone. But... Emma... he- he put it on.”

“What? What do you mean? What did he put on?” I asked, perplexed.

“The ring. He put on the ring and his hand started to turn black. He came bursting into the office, flung off the ring, destroyed it and contacted Severus. Severus stopped the spreading of the curse, he is keeping it trapped in the one hand.”

“Oh my god, how could he have been so stupid?” I groaned.

“Emma, there’s more.” Brian said. “Severus believes that Dumbledore only has fifteen months left to live, maybe less.”

“No, that can’t be right, Dumbledore isn’t going to die, he can’t die, he just can’t.”

“I’m sorry.” Brian said. “I’ll leave you alone.”

I think that Brian thought I was sad, but all I felt was anger and disbelief. Disbelief that Dumbledore could be so stupid and angry that Dumbledore had been so stupid.

I needed to go talk to him, figure out why the hell he had done what he had.

So, ignoring the threat of Gellert, I set off for Dumbledore’s office.

“Can I go up?” I asked the gargoyle. “You know that I will just guess the password eventually anyways.”

The gargoyle hopped aside. “Beware, he already has a guest though.”

“I know, Snape right?”

The gargoyle nodded his giant head and I hurried up the stairs. I felt odd lurking behind the door, but I did it anyway.

On the other side, I could hear Snape and Dumbledore arguing.

“Why would you put it on? Why even touch it? You knew it bore a curse!”

“I was a fool.” Dumbledore said, and he sounded a thousand years old.

“Indeed you were. You are lucky I was close by, I have it contained to your hand for the time being but, I haven’t much experience with this kind of magic, the containment might not hold, you could die at any moment. I can conceal the injury for the time being, but I have no way of knowing how long it will continue to be effective. At any time, the concealment may lift.” Snape said and then after a moment’s silence, added, “Why did you destroy the ring? Did you think it would destroy the curse?”

I took the silence that followed as my opportunity to enter the office. I flung the door open and strode inside.

“Emma!” Snape explained in surprise.

Dumbledore whispered, “How much did you hear?”

“Oh everything, I’m afraid.” I said. Then I summarized everything back to them. “You found the horcrux months ago and then just left it alone even though you had the means to destroy it all along. Then suddenly you decide it’s time to get rid of the damn thing. But before that, you put it on in the hopes of doing who knows what and, shocker, it fails, leaving you cursed to die in fifteen months time... or less.”

I glanced to the door that led to Dumbledore’s private chambers and said into his mind, ‘And I know about your new guest; Gellert Grindelwald.’ Dumbledore paled slightly, but otherwise showed no reaction.

“Horcrux?” Snape asked.

I scoffed, “Oh don’t tell me that you haven’t looped him into all of this.”

“I told no one.” Dumbledore said. “You wouldn’t know either if it had been up to me, but alas, you figured it out.”

“Well, you ought to tell him now, don’t you think? You know, three in the secret and all that, we need another, since you’re dying soon.” I said.

“Wait, who else knows?” Asked Snape.

“Draco.” I said.

“Okay, I suppose.” Dumbledore said wearily. “Voldemort, through the act of murdering people, split apart his soul. He then took pieces of it and moved them into other things, thereby creating horcruxes. If you’ll think back to when the chamber of secrets was opened, you will remember that Harry destroyed a diary of Voldemort’s with a Basilisk fang. That was a horcrux, as was this ring. I believe he has, in total, created six horcruxes and split his soul into seven pieces.”

“So what, he can’t die until all of the other pieces of his soul are gone?” Asked Snape.

“That is correct. It is how he was able to return the last time.” Dumbledore explained.

As they continued to converse, I focused my attentions on the mind on the other side of the wall. It would seem that during his time in prison, his skills as an Occlumens had faded and I was able to weave my way into his mind.

It took me a minute, but finally I was able to dredge up Gellert Grindelwald’s memory of his conversation with Dumbledore.

I skimmed through it, learning that they had been something to each other, something more than friends. He and Dumbledore had planned to carry out their work together, side by side, and overthrow the muggles. But Dumbledore had come to his senses and had tried to dissuade Grindelwald. They, along with Dumbledore’s brother, Aberforth, had had a duel. A duel that had resulted in the death of Dumbledore’s sister, Ariana.

“Albus, I’m sorry. I never intended for anything to happen to your sister. But if we find the Deathly Hallows, the resurrection stone, we can bring her back, she can come back.” Gellert said, pleadingly to Dumbledore.

“I have the resurrection stone, I have had it for months, arguing with myself over and over. Does she even want to come back? And is it cruel to rip her from death, only to have her return shortly after?” Dumbledore said in a hushed whisper.

“There is only one way to find out.” Gellert said.

Dumbledore nodded and strode from the room. Moments later he returned, carrying the ring and the sword. “The stone is inside the ring.” Explained Dumbledore after a quizzical look from Gellert.

Slowly, Dumbledore slid the ring onto his finger. The moment it touched his skin, the skin began to blacken. Dumbledore cursed. “Stay here.” I could feel the panic emanating through Gellert’s mind as Dumbledore ran from the room.

I sped through Gellert’s thoughts and returned to the present.

Dumbledore was instructing Snape and I to leave, and “enjoy the rest of our Sunday.”

But even as Snape made his way out the door, I remained where I was. I shook myself out of it and glanced down at the ring. Sure enough, sitting there, engraved into the band, was a stone, cracked in half, that looked exactly like every depiction I had ever seen of the alleged stone.

The Deathly Hallows were real.


	18. Umbridge’s Agenda

Dumbledore’s Army had become a rather skilled group of individuals and it was all thanks to Harry. Despite Harry’s belief that he was a dreadful teacher, he was doing wonderfully. Every single one of his students had managed a fully corporeal patronus at least once. Not only that, but everyone could preform Expelliarmus, Protego, Reducto, Levicorpus and Stupefy perfectly.

At this point he had nearly two hundred students who wanted to be a part of the DA. We had been forced to put a minimum age requirement on becoming a member to keep things from becoming utterly obvious. So, much to our dismay, the DA became open for only fourth years and up.

“You know, it’s funny,” Hermione said, as we were walking to Muggle Studies.

“What’s funny?” I asked.

“Well, you were the one to pick fourth year as the cutoff.” Hermione said, as though whatever it was that made this funny was obvious.

“And?” I asked, still not getting it.

“If you hadn’t been bumped up, then you would be in your third year this year, making you ineligible.” Hermione explained.

“No, I would be a fourth year.” I countered, “I got my letter two months before my eleventh birthday.”

“Exactly, everyone else got their letters on their eleventh birthdays, not even a day before. And everyone else had to wait until the school year that would occur after their eleventh birthday before they could attend Hogwarts. Like take me for example, my birthday is September nineteenth. So, I got my acceptance letter on the nineteenth of September in 1990. I then had to go through my entire first year of secondary school, knowing I was a witch. Then on September first of 1991, I went to Hogwarts. Do you see now? You have to be eleven to get your letter. And I looked it up, not a single student in the history of Hogwarts has ever been allowed to move ahead a year. It is unheard of in the Wizarding World. And for you to get your letter a year early and then bumped up another year, it just doesn’t make sense.”

I thought back to my first night in the castle. “Hang on, it was like moving into your year had been a last minute decision. Snape hadn’t even known about it, none of the teachers had, except for Dumbledore.”

“So Dumbledore must have had a reason for doing it.” Hermione said triumphantly, “But what do you think it could have-” She cut off abruptly. I followed her line of sight and soon realized why. Umbridge was standing there, talking to Professor Burbage.

I groaned and quickened my pace as I walked through the door. “Good morning Professor Burbage.” I greeted in a rush as I hurried past the loathsome toad.

Umbridge clearly did not appreciate the lack of a greeting directed towards herself and she let out a little cough to both show her displeasure and gather my attention. I, however, expected it and continued right along as though I had heard nothing. Hermione followed suit, albeit grudgingly.

I settled myself down into my seat and Hermione sat to my right. Draco was already there in the seat to my left. No one had dropped the class since the end of third year, keeping our number steadily at eight.

It would seem Umbridge was intent on removing Professor Burbage as a teacher and all together ditching Muggle Studies as a class. It was clear the Umbridge despised anyone who could not preform magic. What I couldn’t figure out was why. I couldn’t fathom her absolute hatred of specific people just because of their blood status. And unfortunately she was skilled at Occlumency and I couldn’t get inside her head. But I didn’t need to get inside her head, all I needed to do was keep her from getting rid of my beloved professor.

‘Breathe, Emma.’ Draco reminded me gently inside my head. Only then did I realize I had been holding my breath. Slowly I exhaled and focused my attention on the front of the classroom. Seconds later, I felt myself tense as Umbridge’s heeled shoes clacked against the floor. Then they stopped and directly behind me, I could hear a chair sliding backwards. I could smell her perfume, suffocating me. She slid her whole desk forward, closing in on me. She was so close that I could practically feel her breath on the back of my neck.

I was shocked that the lesson went by without a single hitch. Only when I turned to pack my things away, did I see the reason behind Umbridge’s silence. She had been furiously scribbling notes down throughout the entirety of the lesson. And at the top, written boldly with red ink, underlined three times, was, “Romanticizes the muggles and works to turn all of the students into them.”

To say the least, I was outraged. I opened my mouth to say something I would surely regret later when Draco spoke into my mind. ‘Emma, it’s alright, don’t engage.’ I took a shaky calming breath and gathered up my things. Draco wrapped his arm around me and began to guide me from the room.

Just before we crossed the threshold, Umbridge lilted, not even deigning to look at us, “Mr. Malfoy, I must say, I am disappointed to see you in such a... worthless class. I had really hoped you to be above such mundane things and to think... what would your father say if he knew.”

I stopped dead in my tracks. “Emma, come on.” Hermione hissed, gripping my forearm, “Don’t say anything, she isn’t worth it.”

It took every ounce of self restraint I possessed to take that step out the door.

“And I really had thought about bringing back Quidditch for the Slytherin team, but if this is the sort of thing you like to do, then surely the muggle activities keep you occupied enough.” Umbridge called behind us.

“Keep walking.” Hermione said under her breath, but I had had enough.

I rounded on her and went for my wand. Draco grabbed my wrist before I could get it though. “Let go!” I growled. But he didn’t and much to my chagrin, he was stronger than me.

But the act of going for my wand alone was enough for Umbridge. “Detention Ms. Evans.” She cooed, “This Saturday, at five o’clock.” She paused for a moment, then added, “Good work Draco. Still no Quidditch, I’m afraid, but I can have you transferred out of this class and then you can resume your duties as an Inquisitorial Squad member.”

Draco said nothing, but he did tighten his grip on my wrist. I couldn’t tell if he was trying to keep me or himself from doing something that we would ultimately regret.

Stiffly, the three of us walked away.

“Emma, if you go to that detention, then you’ll miss the next DA meeting.” Hermione whispered. “Honestly, you’re just as bad as your brother, you need to learn how to control yourself, even when you’re angry.”

“There’s an easy solution.” I said. “I just won’t go.”

She sighed. “If you don’t go to that detention, you could be expelled, Umbridge has the right to do that now, you know? Educational decree number one hundred ninety four, or was it ninety five? And you’re lucky she didn’t give you another detention, educational decree number two hundred and thirty four clearly states that all pets must remain in the common rooms, aside of owls which must remain in the Owlery.” I glanced down at Emmett who was curled in my arm, asleep. “It really is lucky that he’s black, he blends in with your robes, she probably didn’t even see him, and he’s so well behaved. And Draco, you could have gotten into so much trouble for touching Emma, I mean she made that decree about boys and girl maintaining at least one meter of space between them ages ago. I suppose it’s because you’re a member of the Inquisitorial Squad though, otherwise she never would have let it go.”

“Is she really up to two hundred and thirty four educational decrees?” I asked, my spirits lifted by Hermione’s rant and the absurdness by which Umbridge was operating.

“No, no, she’s gotten to two hundred and sixty something, at least, last I checked.” Hermione replied.

I raised my eyebrows, “And when was the last time you checked.”

“This morning, at breakfast.” She said sheepishly.

“And to think,” I laughed, “I haven’t checked since number four.”

***

I should not have skipped my detention with Umbridge. If I hadn’t, none of us would be in this mess at all. Well, to me fair, that wasn’t entirely true. About a dozen of us had skipped detention to go to our DA meeting, but still, if we hadn’t, then Umbridge would not have sent her Inquisitorial Squad members on a manhunt, searching for the lot of us.

Draco had warned me through Legilimency from just outside the room of requirement.

I had run over to Harry. “Umbridge is searching for me, and the others who skipped out on detention to be here.”

Harry had cursed under his breath. But then more news arrived. ‘Crabbe and Goyle caught someone- hang on- it’s Marietta Edgecombe, she’s a Ravenclaw, sixth year, and shit, Em, she snitched. Get out of there!’

“They found Marietta, and she told on us, the Inquisitorial Squad is coming... now!” I said to Harry frantically.

He began instructing groups to leave, but it was madness, everyone scattered.

I pulled my gem from my pocket and muttered into it. “Dumbledore, we’re about to have a big problem, be prepared for Umbridge in your office.” I warned him and then shut it off, just as the doors burst open, revealing Umbridge flanked by Inquisitorial Squad members on either side.

I was glad to see that almost everyone had managed to get away, but still a few people had been caught; myself, Harry, Hermione, Ron, Luna, Ginny and Neville. Hermione had spent her last moments placing some sort of concealment charm on the piece of parchment with all of our names, so at least there was nothing to incriminate the others.

Goyle grabbed me, wrenched the wand from my hand, and effectively pinned both of my hands behind my back. Some of the other members had done the same to Hermione, Neville, Ron, and Harry, leaving all of us defenseless.

Draco walked in and his eyes locked on me. ‘Why can’t you ever listen?’ He asked into my mind. He strode over to Goyle and said, “I’ll take it from here.” He snatched my wand from Goyle’s fist. Still Goyle refused to let go of me. “Go help Crabbe with Weasley.” Draco sneered haughtily and finally Goyle slumped away. Discretely, Draco slipped my wand into the pocket of my robes. He was far more gentle that Goyle had been when he grabbed hold of my wrists. He held them together loosely with one hand, I could have easily broken away.

‘Thanks’

‘So, what’s the plan?’ Draco asked silently.

‘I haven’t gotten that far yet.’ I confessed, ‘Any ideas?’

Just then, Umbridge walked in with Marietta and Snape. Marietta had her face covering her hands. Moments later, in walked the Minister of Magic, Cornelius Fudge and three ministry members, one of whom I recognized to be none other than Order member, Kingsley Shacklebolt.

Umbridge scooped the parchment listing all the members from the ground and brandished it in Hermione’s face, “What is this?”

“A blank piece of parchment.” Hermione said innocently.

“No! I bet they’ve got something concealed on here. Come, Minister, we must speak with the Headmaster.” Umbridge said. The Inquisitorial Squad dragged my friends up to Dumbledore’s office, with more and more members meeting us along the way.

Draco and I were at the back of the group and soon joined by Daphne, Theo and Pansy. “You could just slip away.” Draco whispered.

“No, Goyle saw me.” I whispered back, “You’ll get into trouble. And with me already in trouble, we don’t need the both of us in it.”

“Yeah but Emma, you won’t just be in trouble with the school, you’ll be in trouble with your parents. It doesn’t matter what my parents think.”

“Draco, my parents are dead.”

“No, that’s not what I meant. I mean Remus and Sirius.”

Oh. _Oh._

Snape said the password and all of us filed up into Dumbledore’s office, to find him seated behind his desk, as though he had been waiting for us.

“Ah, Minister,” He said in his calm, low voice, “What can I do for you?”

“Dolores, here, has been expressing worries that some particular students have been breaking some of the rules set by the educational decrees she put in place. Tonight, a dozen different students, from all four houses skipped their detentions with her in order to meet up with a secret club.” Fudge explained briskly.

“And how do you know that they were meeting up with a secretive club?” Dumbledore asked serenely.

“Mr. Edgecombe told Dolores.” Said Fudge.

“Go on girl,” Umbridge prodded, “Tell them what you told me.” Marietta, however, said nothing and refused to remove her hands from her face. “Come on, it isn’t that bad.” Slowly, Marietta let her hands fall to her sides, revealing giant welts covering it and smaller ones strewn across her forehead to form the word ‘Snitch.’ “Well go on then, tell them!”

“I- I- I lied.” Marietta finally got out. “I lied about it all, there was no secret club, I was just making up an excuse as to why I skipped detention.”

“Liar!” Umbridge spat, “If you had been lying than that word would not have appeared!” Umbridge looked deranged. Then her eyes landed on the piece of apparently blank parchment, that I knew held all of our names. “This! It’s a concealment charm, I am sure of it!”

She ran over and plucked it up once more. Then she placed it back down on Dumbledore’s desk and drew out her wand. “Revelio!”

The moment she cast the spell, I said into Dumbledore’s mind, ‘You can’t let them see that.’

The parchment appeared to be bleeding as ink began to show itself. The second that all of the letters were fully formed, Fawkes swooped down and set the parchment aflame. It was nothing but ashes and cinders within seconds. But before it had gone, the words ‘Dumbledore’s Army’ had been unmistakably visible, etched upon it. There was no doubt in my mind that every single person the room had seen it written there.

My suspicions were confirmed when Fudge whispered, “I knew it. I knew you were rallying forces against the Ministry, conspiring against us, trying to overthrow me!”

“Indeed.” Dumbledore said, still the picture of ease. “It seems you have found me out.”

“No- Professor!” Harry cried.

“Harry, be quiet.” Dumbledore said warningly.

“Yes, shut up Potter!” Fudge snapped. “Well, well, I came here tonight expecting to expel Potter, but instead-”

“You get to arrest me.” Dumbledore said, jovially.

“Have you gotten all of that written down Weasley, everything he’s said, his confession?” Fudge asked.

And Percy- Percy? That wasn’t a third auror, it was Percy Weasley! Percy said, “Yes, yes, I’ve got it all written down!”

“The bit about how he’s been trying to build up an army against the ministry, how he’s been working to destabilize me?” Fudge asked eagerly.

“Yes!” Percy said, his voice filled with glee.

“Very well then. Duplicate your notes, Weasley, and send a copy to the daily profit at once. If we send a fast owl we should make the morning edition!” And with that, Percy left the room quickly. “You will now be escorted back to the Ministry, where you will be formally charged and then sent to Azkaban to await trial!”

Just then McGonagall came bursting in. “Albus- oh- What is going on in here?” She asked, startled it would seem to find the room so very crowded.

“He has been raising an army against the ministry.” Kingsley offered, rather nonchalantly gesturing to Dumbledore.

“Yes, well, Dumbledore, we will have to take you into custody now.” Fudge said, and the nervousness he was surely feeling dripped into his voice, but was that delight in there too?

“Ah, yes, I thought we might arrive at this little snag.” Dumbledore said.

Fudge’s eyes widened with annoyance or anger or fear or a mixture of them all. “Snag? There is no snag!”

“I’m afraid that there is.” Dumbledore said pleasantly. “It would seem that you were under the false notion that I was going to come quietly. I am afraid to disappoint, but that will not be the case.”

“What?” Fudge blustered, “Now Dumbledore, be reasonable here. Do you really think you can take on Dawlish, Shacklebolt, Dolores and myself single handed?” So the other auror’s name was Dawlish then.

“He will not be single handed!” Shouted McGonagall. She drew her wand, and I noticed, that behind Umbridge, Snape did too. Carefully, I slid out my own wand.

“Yes he will!” Dumbledore said, that warning entering his voice once more. “Hogwarts needs you!”

“Enough of this! Dawlish, Shacklebolt, take him!”

But Dumbledore’s wand was already out and without a word, every Inquisitorial Squad member, along with Fudge, Umbridge, Kingsley and Dawlish collapsed upon the ground.

“Draco!” I cried and crouched down beside him.

“Miss Evans, I assure you, he is fine. It would look suspicious if I did not stun them all.” Dumbledore said, then turned to McGonagall and asked, “What is it Minerva?”

“Tonks has gone into labor.” She said breathlessly.

“What?” I asked, “Now?”

McGonagall nodded. “She is at St. Mungo’s with Taleus and Fleur now.”

“Good, when the baby is born, tell her congratulations for me. Now, you must act as though no time has passed, as though they were merely knocked to the ground. You cannot take you wands, Emma, you will need to put yours back where it was.” Dumbledore instructed.

“But, I had mine the whole time, Draco didn’t take it.”

“Right, then best not to let Umbridge see it.” I sheepishly slipped the wand back into my pocket.

“Professor Dumbledore,” Harry started, but Dumbledore cut him off before he could say anything more.

“Listen to me, Harry, you must study as hard as you can, do you understand? Do everything you are told-”

Dawlish was starting to stir.

“Where are you going to go?” Asked Hermione.

“That is for me to know, and me alone. But, know this, I will not be hiding.” Dumbledore assured us.

“Severus, Minerva, take care of the school while I am away, the students need you more than ever.” Dumbledore said. “And all of you, stay out of trouble.” Then he reached up and the moment his arm was fully extended, Fawkes’ talons met his fingertips and they were gone.

“Everyone on the ground,” Snape hissed, and we all dropped like gravity had just begun to work tenfold.

With the others we pretended to stir, to stand and look around.

I let Draco into my mind, showed him everything that had happened. As I caught him up to speed, the aurors raced down the stairs, with the hopes of finding Dumbledore. Fudge remained behind for a moment, merely to appoint Umbridge as the new Headmistress and then he was gone too.

“Minerva, take Miss Edgecombe to the hospital wing.” Umbridge said. Once McGonagall and Marietta were gone, she turned to Snape and said, “I would like you to go and start brewing more Veritaserum for me.” He turned briskly and walked away. “Now for the rest of you, I think the dungeons will do.” She finished, grinning devilishly at the seven of us.


	19. Deadly Potential

The Inquisitorial Squad members dragged us from the Headmaster’s office- or rather the Headmistress’s now- and led us down the winding staircase. As we made our way through the corridors and to the dungeons, Draco once again asked into my mind, ‘What’s the plan?’

‘Hang on, I’m still working on it.’ I returned, whispering, even though no one besides him would hear it even if I screamed. ‘There are too many variables. I don’t know who will side with us and who will stick with the Inquisitorial Squad.’

‘Well, we need to stun Crabbe and Goyle for sure. And everyone else who’s holding your friends. Daph, Pansy and Theo are obviously safe for us to count on. What we really need is to get the others their wands back.’ Draco thought.

With Draco, Daphne, Pansy, Theo and myself in the back of the group, I had a clear view of everyone. With a great effort and difficulty, I projected my thoughts into all of their minds. ‘Nod once if you can hear me.’

Luna nodded first, then Hermione, followed by Harry, Ron, Ginny, and finally Neville. Even I was amazed with my own abilities sometimes.

‘Do all of you know where your wands are?’

Another nod from each of them confirmed that they did.

‘Perfect, on my signal, not yet, but on my signal, everyone go for your wands.’

We reached the dungeon level then and I spotted Millicent, Tracey and Blaise. I did my best to discretely usher them over, but they weren’t paying attention. So I whispered into their minds, ‘Come here.’ At my voice, their heads all whipped around in different directions, trying to pinpoint the source. Tracey was the first to see us. She pointed us out to the other two and then all three of them were running over to join us.

“There you are! We’ve been looking for you. What’s going on?” Millicent asked softly.

“We got the summons from Umbridge and-” Blaise was cut off by a frantic Tracey.

She burst out, “We heard that Dumbledore was organizing a rebellion against the Ministry, and he’s on the run now.”

“Glad to see that the rumors are accurate.” I whispered back. Tracey paled significantly in horrified disbelief. I knew she wanted an explanation, but now was not the time. I would be able to tell her and the others everything later, but for now, there were much bigger, more important things to deal with. 

Into all of my Slytherin friend’s minds, I spoke, ‘On my signal, I need each of you to stun the Inquisitorial Squad members.’ Just as we were entering the actual cell blocks of the dungeons. If we didn’t act soon, then it would be too late, so I gave the signal, ‘Now!’

Everyone jumped into action all at once, too fast for me to have any idea what was going on. I did manage to catch a few snippets of the fight. Ron punched Goyle in the jaw, knocking him out cold and snatching his wand back in one fluid motion. Daphne hit a seventh year Slytherin boy right in the eye with a stunning spell. Hermione kneed a sixth year in the balls and stunned him moments later.

And then, within seconds, all of the Inquisitorial Squad members were on the ground, unconscious, with my friends standing, wands pointed at their chests.

“Right then,” I said, scanning over the bodies on the ground, rather impressed with the efficiency of this group. “Let’s- er- get them into these cells. Make sure to get their wands, can’t leave them with a way of escaping. I doubt Umbridge will come down here anyway, at least not until that Veritaserum potion is finished with. So that at least should give us a little bit of time.”

Harry asked, “How long does it take to brew Veritaserum?”

I did my best to ignore his ignorance, but he really should have already known the answer to that. I excused him, as he wasn't a potions wiz by any means. “It takes a full lunar cycle, but Umbridge has been having Snape make it so much that he has likely already gotten a batch going. That means it will be done in three or maybe four days- I can’t quite remember what day it’s on- but anyway we can probably stay unnoticed until then, so we have to lay low.” I explained. “We need to find a way to prove Dumbledore’s innocence, that’s the only way we can get him back to the school and we need him here.”

Into my mind, Draco said, ‘Emma, we should go talk to Salazar, he might know how we can convince the Ministry that Voldemort is back, if they realize Dumbledore was telling the truth the entire time, he might get cleared.’

I gave him a minute nod of acknowledgement, but did not answer, instead keeping my mind focused on the conversation.

“How are we supposed to do that?” Asked Neville.

I sighed, “No idea. But until then, we need to warn the other students, I’m sure she’s going to be on the hunt, trying to figure out who the members were.” I began to leave, but I was stopped by Ginny.

“Where are you going?” She asked.

“There’s something I’ve got to do,” I said before breaking into a run.

Minutes later, I was in Salazar’s unground mansion, that was actually more like a palace today, but I didn’t have the time to take it all in.

“Do you know what Voldemort is doing right now, where he is or what he’s planning?” I asked Salazar, skipping over pleasantries entirely.

“I’m afraid not.” Salazar said.

“Okay, then do you know where Dumbledore is?” I tried.

“I apologize, but I cannot see him either.” Salazar said, then added, “My view has been rather limited as of late.”

“Do you know what he’s doing, then?” I asked, getting slightly irritated.

Salazar merely shook his head.

Completely annoyed now, I asked, “Well what do you know then?”

“I know why Dumbledore brought you to school a year early, and why he moved you forward another year once you arrived here.” Salazar said, “And I know, that until very recently, you had no idea that your case was anything out of the ordinary.”

That got my attention and all annoyance gave way to interest. “Tell me then.” I urged.

Salazar seemed to be contemplating something before he finally said, “Yes, I do believe you are ready to know.” He paused and then continued, “See, your brother was not the only one a prophecy was made about. There was one about you too. I do not know the exact wording of it, but I know the gist and I know that without a doubt, it pertains to you. And Dumbledore knew it too.

“See, this prophecy was made before you were born and it told that you would become the most powerful and gifted death eater to ever walk this earth, unbeatable and unmatched in strength or skill. Now as you may now, not all prophecies come to pass, and Dumbledore was determined to not let this one occur.

“With Voldemort vanquished by your brother mere weeks after you were born, Dumbledore was confident that you would be alright. He was content to let you live with the Dursley’s. But then, in Harry’s first at Hogwarts, as you well know I am sure, Voldemort made a reappearance. He was not alive, no, but he was not dead either. Dumbledore thought it was no longer safe for you to remain home. He was worried that you would be bitter and cruel because of your aunt and uncle’s treatment of you.

“So he brought you to school a year early, with the hopes that you would befriend Harry’s friends and the Weasley’s and therefore grow up among good witches and wizards and be influenced away from evil and dark magic.

“But that plan failed too, when you were sorted into Slytherin, and not Gryffindor, for he had been so sure you would share in your family’s house. So, at the last minute, he moved you up, so at least you would share classes with your brother and Hermione and Neville and all of those good witches and wizards who loathed the dark arts.

“He wanted to keep an eye on you, to ensure you didn’t stray from the path of good magic, from the side of the Order. Because he was scared, Emma, he was scared that if you did turn to the dark arts, not even he would be able to stop you.” Salazar finished.

I was speechless, I was meant to not only become a death eater, but the best one? Or the worst one, depending on how you looked at it. It was no wonder that Dumbledore had been quick to think the worst of me when I had stolen his locked away books. I told myself not to panic, Salazar was right after all, not all prophecies come to pass, but many did, who was to say that mine wouldn’t.

We control our own actions.

The first words to come out of my mouth were, “I want to hear it.”

“I do not have access to it.” Salazar said regretfully.

“Then who does?”

“The Ministry does, they keep a record of every prophecy ever made in the Department of Mysteries.” He pulled a book from his shelf and flipped to a page that depicted an open door that revealed long rows of shelves, each of which were lined with silvery-blue orbs that seemed to be holding billowing smoke.

“So all I have to do is get into the Ministry listen to the record of the one about me?” I asked.

Salazar nodded, “But it will be harder than you think.”

“We will see about that.” I scoffed and strode out of the underground palace. 

“Be careful!” He called after me, but I was already gone.

***

I opted not to tell Draco about what Salazar had told me. I opted to not tell anyone at all. It was better that way. I didn’t want them to worry about me or second guess my every action and the motives behind them. I was beginning to bare the weight of more secrets than I could hold. I could feel myself beginning to crumble, but there was nothing to be done for it.

_Gellert Grindelwald is in the castle._

_Harry Potter is a horcrux._

_I am to be the most dangerous death eater to ever live._

_Dumbledore only has a year left to live._

_I am Harry Potter’s sister._

_Salazar Slytherin is still alive._

The list went on and on, until finally I gave up, still with no end in sight and refocused my attentions on what was going on in the world around me.

I was sitting on the floor of Moaning Myrtle’s bathroom, huddled in a circle with Luna, Neville, Harry, Ginny, Hermione and Ron, trying to figure out the game plan. Daphne and Draco were pretending to be on patrol for the Inquisitorial Squad on the first floor to give us some time.

Suddenly Harry doubled over, clutching his scar and groaning in pain. Immediately, I pushed myself into his mind. It was agony there, but I forced myself to stay put. We seemed to be seeing through Voldemort’s eyes as he glided down a long corridor, the skin of the hand gripping his wand, so deathly pale, he looked as though he could have been a vampire.

He went through a door and into another corridor. And there, at the end of the corridor was door, a door that was being guarded by Sirius. Sirius raised his wand to fend off Voldemort, but it was too late. In Voldemort’s high hissing voice, he screamed, “Crucio!’

Sirius collapsed to the ground, writhing and screaming in pain.

I wrenched myself free of Voldemort’s mind, taking Harry with me. Both of us were gasping and panting as we came out of the vision, as though we had just run a marathon, or had been underwater for a very long time.

Harry and I spoke at the same time. “Sirius is in trouble!” Harry said.

“I know where that is!” I said.

Harry turned to me, “That door, it leads to the Hall of Mysteries. It’s a giant room filled with prophecies, that must be the thing the Order is guarding.” I said the last part in a whisper.

“We have to go, now.” Harry said, frantically jumping to his feet. 

“What?” Ginny asked.

“What’s going on?” Asked Hermione.

Neville exclaimed. “We can’t just leave!”

“I just saw Voldemort torturing Sirius!” Harry shouted, “We have to go, right now.”

“And how are we supposed to get out?” I asked, trying to be reasonable, while inside my heart was thundering inside my chest. “All of the floo networks are being monitored, our broomsticks are locked up, we can’t apparate and we can’t very well walk to the Ministry.”

“I know,” Luna said brightly, “We could ride the thestrals.”

“You mean the things that we can’t see?” Asked Hermione.

“Precisely.” Luna said.

“But how are we supposed to find them?” Asked Hermione, nervously.

I piped up, “You forget, Harry, Neville, Luna and I have all seen death, so we can all see the thestrals. We’ll find them.”

“Hang on a second here.” Interjected Harry. “You aren’t going. Just Hermione, Ron and I. I won’t put anyone else in danger.”

“Bullshit.” I said, “I’m going.”

Luna added, “Me too.”

“Yeah, isn’t this what we’ve been training for?” Asked Neville.

“Harry, don’t argue.” I said, “We’re going and it will only waste more time if we sit here and bicker about it.”

Finally he gave in. But when we reached the hall, a new problem arose. Draco and Daphne wanted to come too. We tried halfheartedly to convince them otherwise, with no success, so we soon gave in.

I could tell Harry did not like the idea of teaming up with his all time rival, but there wasn’t the time to argue. So, grudgingly, Draco was allowed to join us. I thought Harry was too wracked with worry to think it odd that Draco didn’t even blink at seeing Harry and I together, which was to our advantage. It gave me time to come up with a cover story at the least. My cover story was simple and to the point as always.

If asked, I would say that I had been having dreams of a prophecy for months and I wanted to go their to get some answers. I had confided in Draco about my dreams and he wanted answers nearly as much as I did, so when some of the other students had reason to go to the very same place that I desperately wanted to go to, I had jumped onto the opportunity. Even if it meant having to go with Harry Potter.

_Just another secret to add to the ever growing list._

But Harry was so distracted that I doubted he would ask about it at all, so it didn’t matter so much.

And then, the nine of us were off.

Off to save Sirius.

_And..._

_Off to steal that prophecy._

I hated the fact that I had secret motives to diving head first into saving my brother’s Godfather, but to be fair, all year, Dumbledore and Snape had warned Harry that Voldemort might trick him, show him something false. Sirius might not be in any danger at all, this could just be one big trap.

Even if it was a trap, I was determined to get my hands on that prophecy. I needed to hear what it said, perhaps there was something that Salazar and Dumbledore had missed in it.

My thoughts drifted, as we soared through the air towards the MInistry, to Tonks and Taleus in St. Mungo’s. I hoped everything was going alright with the baby. Tonks and Taleus would be wonderful parents to him, I could only hope to be half as good at being his Godmother.

Before I knew it, we were touching down in front of a telephone booth. The nine of us crammed inside and Draco picked up the phone and typed in ‘62442’. I couldn’t hear what the operator said but then he was listing all of our names. “Ginevra Weasley, Draco Malfoy, Harry Potter, Hermione Granger, Ronald Weasley, Luna Lovegood, Neville Longbottom, Daphne Greengrass. Pansy Parkinson. Rescue Mission.” The telephone booth began to sink into the ground and then it was opening up into the Ministry of Magic. Badges had been printed for each of us, and I hurriedly took the one that said Pansy Parkinson on it.

There was nobody seated at the entrance desk to mark our presence, that should have been the first warning sign. Sure, it was well into the night, but someone should have still been there to patrol. But I was too blinded by curiosity and worry to notice.


	20. Losses

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Here’s a long one!!!

In our haste, we sprinted right past the desk without offering it so much as a glance.

It was lucky that Draco was with us because no one else knew the Ministry’s layout at all. He had been here on countless occasions and led us directly to the lifts. Despite the fact that Harry had never before been to the Ministry, he seemed to know where to go. The moment we were inside of a lift, he pressed the button for the ninth floor. The lift moved quickly and then the doors were opening with the crisp voice of a witch, announcing, “Department of Mysteries.”

We stepped out, and there was that door I had seen in Salazar’s ancient book. Harry placed his hand on the knob but didn’t turn it. He turned back to look at us and swallowed. “Listen, maybe some of you should stay here and be lookouts. Emma, and Ginny and Luna. You can wait here and the rest of you wait over there,” He gestured back towards the atrium “And Hermione, Ron and I will go in.”

“Hell no,” I said and pushed past him. I flung the door open to find... more doors. They were all the same, identical in every way. Shit. The moment we were inside, the wall began to spin at dizzying speed. Now we had no way of knowing which door would let us out.

Neville seemed to have had the same train of thought as me, for he said nervously, “How’re we going to get out?”

“That doesn’t matter right now.” Harry said. “We won’t need to leave until we find Sirius.” And my prophecy.

“The doors only open when someone is standing in front of it.” Harry explained, “At least, that’s how it was in my dreams.”

“Okay, so everyone stand in front of a different door.” I instructed. “We are looking for a room with very tall shelves filled with blue orbs.”

Everyone did as I had instructed and seven different doors opened in unison. My stomach churned when I saw what was inside of my door. There was a large pool sized glass tank filled with a deep green liquid. And there was something moving inside of it. Something that looked a lot like... I shuttered at the thought and backed away a step.

“I’ve got the door to the way out,” Daphne called and we all turned to look at her. Indeed, that was certainly the way from which we had come. Hermione pulled out her wand and marked the door with three horizontal lines that spanned across its entire width.

“Has anyone found the room we need?” Harry asked, to which everyone shook their heads solemnly. he walked around, looking inside each door just to be sure. Hermione followed him, marking each door with an ‘X’. Then we closed all of the doors and the room began to spin again. Each of us moved to stand in front of a blank door and once again, nine doors opened simultaneously.

This time Neville called out in delight, “I think I’ve got it!” Everyone went over and sure enough, there it was. Hermione hurriedly marked the door with three vertical lines and then we all filed inside.

Apprehension filled the faces of those around me as we all crept inside, our wands raised and poised to strike at a moment’s notice. Slowly we moved through the rows upon rows of prophecies. All of them were dull and cloudy except for one. It shown like a bright blue glowing mist.

“Why do you think that one’s different?” I asked softly, pointing to it.

Ginny gave me a puzzled gaze. “What are you talking about?”

“That prophecy. Why do you think it’s glowing like that?”

“Emma. None of them are glowing.” Hermione said slowly.

I turned to Draco, “Don’t tell me you don’t see that.”

He flashed an image of what he was seeing into my mind. Sure enough, every prophecy looked the same. I sent back an image of my own, showing him that to me, it was glowing.

Could this be the prophecy made about me? No, it couldn’t be, this prophecy was over nine centuries old. Still, I could not help but be drawn to it. Gently, I plucked it from its place on the shelf and slipped it into the pocket of my robes.

I rejoined the rest of the group and we edged forward, our wand tips illuminating the surrounding shelves. Suddenly the group stopped moving and Harry hissed, “He was here, in my dream, he was here, I’m sure of it.”

“Harry...” Hermione said gently, “I don’t think Sirius is here.”

But something else was here, another glowing prophecy. I inched towards it, staying alert for any signs of danger. If Sirius wasn’t here, then surely all of this was a trap and we were in terrible danger. But I needed to get this prophecy too, I could feel it in my gut.

Ron had followed me this time and was reading the little labels beneath each prophecy. “Harry?” He called in a whisper shout. “Have you seen this?” I squinted over to where Ron was pointing, and sure enough, it was labeled, ‘Harry Potter.’ Harry would finally learn about the prophecy pertaining to him. I tried to take it down, but it would not budge.

Harry turned to face us and whispered in a rush of released breath, “It’s glowing.”

“No it isn’t. Harry, I really don’t think this is a good idea. Don’t touch it.” Hermione whispered, looking worried now. He ignored her words of warning completely and reached up, pulling it down without the slightest sign of difficulty.

Just as when I had taken mine, nothing happened. But then, the hair on the back of my neck rose and I could feel the presence of more people here. A moment later, the cold voice of Lucius Malfoy drawled, “Very good, now turn around very slowly and give it here, Potter.”

In the next moment, a dozen or so death eaters were surrounding us.

“I thought you were in Azkaban.” I hissed at Lucius, trying to concoct some plan of escape now that I had gotten what I needed.

“I left.” He said simply.

“Well perhaps you should go back.” I snarled, “Before you do something that cannot be undone.

High pitched, cold laughter echoed across the shelves and bounced against the ceiling as a curly haired witch made an appearance. Neville tensed beside me. And with that simple action, I knew who this woman was. Bellatrix Lestrange.

“Well, well, someone’s brave,” She taunted, “A brave little Gryffindor.”

“Actually, I’m a Slytherin, thank you very much.” I corrected. If she wanted to play, I’d play.

“What’s a little Slytherin doing here with the oh so great, Harry Potter?”

“Talking to a psycho apparently.” I snapped.

Her grin faded into a snarl. “Give me the prophecy.” She stretched out a hand, as though we intended on dropping it into her waiting palm. 

None of us moved.

Harry spoke up, “So what, this is what Voldemort is after?”

“Do not say the Dark Lord’s name with your filthy half blood lips.” Bellatrix shrieked, brandishing her wand at him. The death eaters were closing in around us, cornering us. We needed to figure a way to get out of here. “Give us the prophecy, now!”

“No.” I said.

“Hand over the prophecy,” Lucius said slowly, his eyes falling on his son, “And no one need get hurt.”

“Yeah, right.” Harry scoffed, “I give you this prophecy and no one gets hurt? What, you’ll just let us skip on home?”

“Accio prophecy!” Bellatrix called.

“Protego!” Harry bellowed, right in time, barely managing to keep his grip of the prophecy.

“Oh, he knows how to play, little itty bitty Potter. Very well then.”

“I told you, no!” Lucius hollered, “You’ll smash it!”

She glared at Lucius but, refrained from casting whatever curse had been on the tip of her tongue. “Fine, it would seem Potter requires some persuasion. Take the little one, the spitfire, let him watch as we torture her. I’ll do it.”

Two of the bigger death eaters started towards me, both of them had at least a foot on me, but I refused to balk. “Don’t give it to them.” I hissed, “Voldemort cannot hear that prophecy.” The death eaters drew ever nearer. I pointed my wand at the end of the shelf to my right and shouted, “Confringo!” The shelf explodes into flames, leaving prophecies to clatter and shatter to the ground, pieces of the shelf came tumbling down, effectively blocking the death eaters from us. “Harry, you’ve got to smash the prophecy.”

“What? No! We don’t know what it says!” He argued. I knew what it said, but I couldn’t tell him that, not yet.

“Dumbledore, surely he knows, you’ve got to trust that he does.” I pleaded, “You can’t give Voldemort the chance to get it!”

He looked to Ginny and she nodded. Carefully, he lifted the orb above his head. The death eaters were starting to blast through the wreckage, we were out of time. I could see their silhouettes now. “Confringo!” I cried, pointing my wand at another section of the shelf. “Harry, do it!” With all of his might, he flung the prophecy against the ground. It seemed to break apart in slow motion and then Trelawney’s face was bubbling up out of the shards. “Confringo! Confringo! Confringo!” I blew up shelf after shelf, until the prophecy had been spoken for the last time, with no one having heard it.

“Go! Go!” Daphne screamed and we all dashed down the rest of the alley and turned down running past alley after alley.

“We have to get out of here!” Hermione said over the noise of continued shelves falling. Just then a killing curse shot between Luna and I, missing us by inches. I turned round as I ran and sent a stunning spell back in the general direction of the death eater that was tailing us. Three more killing curses came shooting towards us. Draco yanked me from the path of one and into an alley. In order to avoid the other two killing curses, both Ron and Luna had been forced to join us.

A death eater ran towards us in the alley, but we needed to get by him to get out of here. “Depulso!” I cast and the death eater, unable to react quick enough, shot backwards.

As he flew through the air, Draco shouted, “Stupefy!” And his head lulled to the side as he collapsed in a heap, unconscious. We leapt over him just as four more death eaters intercepted our path.

“What are they, multiplying?” Asked Ron with a groan. “Stupefy!” Another death eater fell to the ground.

Luna took care of the other three a moment later with a called out, “Reducto!”

“There’s the door!” I said, and pointed ahead to where I could see the circular room filled with identical doors. We had nearly made it when Bellatrix slid out in front of us.

“Oh Draco, how you dishonor the family, you ought to be punished for your treachery. I shall do it.” She cackled, sounding quite deranged.

“No you won’t.” I said, stepping forward.

“Oh, the little spitfire wants to have a go at it, does she?” Bellatrix taunted.

“Avada Kedavra!” She hissed and once again, I just barely managed to avoid the curse.

“So predictable Bella, it’s always the same two spells with you, isn’t it?” I said loudly, “Maybe try for some variety. It makes dueling much less dull.” Then quieter, I hissed to the others, “Go!”

“Crucio!”

“Lacarnum Inflamarae!”

Our spells collided and my fireball exploded on impact, throwing us both back. It had been closer to her though, so I recovered more quickly. “Go! I’ve got this!” I hissed to the others, for they had remained behind. Somewhere in the distance, Hermione let out a shriek of agony. “Go, help her!” That was enough for Ron and he was gone. “Luna, go!” She hesitated for a moment and then disappeared after Ron.

“Draco Malfoy, I swear to God, if you don’t go right this instance, I will- Everte Statum!- Just go!” I pleaded as Bellatrix soared back and smashed against a shelf. “Flagrante!” The spell hit her wand directly and she hissed, dropping it. Two wands clattered to the ground, the spell of burning flesh filled the air as she attempted to pick up her wand yet again. “Stupefy!” Bellatrix Lestrange fell to the ground. I walked up to her and cast “Finite.” Upon her wand, and it stopped multiplying. The fake wands vanished into thin air, leaving only the real one. I plucked it up and snapped it in half before tossing each half in opposite directions. “Incarcerous!” I said and ropes shot from my wand and immobilized her. I turned to Draco and grinned, “I told you I could handle her. Now, let’s go find the others.”

Together, we took off in the direction in which Luna and Ron had disappeared. To my surprise, there was Sirius, dueling with one of the death eaters. And there was Taleus, did that mean Tonks had had her baby? Apparently she had because there she was, dueling her hardest.

“Sirius!” I called, jumping into the fray beside him. “Have you seen Harry or Hermione? I heard her scream. Stupefy! Ron and Luna went after her. Protego!”

“No, I’ve only seen Ginny and Neville, they’re- Stupefy!- over there.” He said, nodding through one of the doors in the circular room. I squinted through it to see an odd veil. The whispering softly of haunted voices were bleeding through it and somehow I understood that they were the voices of the dead.

Sirius and I hurdled inside as we heard Neville cry out. His leg was bleeding heavily, but it would turn out that Ginny and Neville didn’t need us at all. Neville stunned the death eater that had injured him and Ginny healed the wound without interrupting her own duel in the slightest.

Suddenly Bellatrix came sprinting in with vengeance on her mind. In her hand, she was clutching a new wand, where she had gotten it, I had no idea. But it didn’t matter as she was coming straight for me.

However, she path was interrupted as Tonks ran in, hitting Bellatrix square in the back with a stinging jinx. Bellatrix whirled around and they began to duel. They were just about evenly matched, but it was clear that Bellatrix had the upper hand, every time I tried to step in to help, I was drawn into defending myself from the attack of another death eater. I could tell Sirius, Neville, Ginny and Draco were having the same problem. Draco had hardly even made it into the room when he was already being forced into a duel.

Bellatrix was pushing Tonks closer and closer to the veil, but still I couldn’t do anything to help her. Bellatrix sent a particularly strong gust of wind her way and she lost her footing. She fell in slow motion. “Tonks!” I screamed, knowing in my heart that she was about to die. But then, she caught herself, three fingers wrapped around the stone archway surrounding the veil. Relief flooded through me, she was okay.

Bellatrix sent a stinging jinx flying, and Tonks was in no position to block it. It hit her hand and she tore it away from the stone, and she was gone. She had fallen through the veil and she wasn’t coming back. “No!” I cried.

And my voice was joined by Taleus’s. “Crucio!” Bellatrix collapsed to the ground, writhing in agony. Taleus sprinted through the room, somehow, every spell, curse and jinx missed him. It all happened so fast, no one had time to stop him. No one even knew what was happening until it was too late.

And Taleus was gone too.

Harry ran into the room, accompanied by Luna and Ron. Hermione was still no where to be seen. My heart skipped a beat, could she be dead? No, it wasn’t possible. And where was Daphne? She wouldn’t have been here if not for me, if she was dead, it was my fault.

And more death eaters had arrived. They outnumbered us, two to one. Bellatrix waved her wand and a rope appeared out of nowhere, wrapping itself around Sirius’s throat. “Nobody move or he dies!”

All of us froze. We had just lost the final of age wizard who was on our side. Sure Remus was out there somewhere, but he wasn’t here, with us. He couldn’t help.

“Give me the prophecy or I kill my dear cousin.” Bellatrix threatened and to enhance her point, she lifted him from the ground, hanging him by his neck. Sirius stopped struggling. He wasn’t moving, wasn’t breathing.

This was a war. And war came with casualties. It was time for me to accept that, to get things done, people had to die.

“Avada Kedavra!” I shouted and in Bellatrix’s surprise, she released Sirius and stumbled back. The spell missed her though.

Our own reinforcements had arrived. Dumbledore, McGonagall, Kingsley, Moody, Bill, Sturgis and Fleur. The death eaters scattered and I rushed to Sirius’s side. I was the first to reach him. Harry, Draco, Luna and Ginny were there in seconds.

“Has he got a pulse?” Ginny asked. I felt for one and found nothing. I laid my head on his chest. Silence. His heart was not beating.

“No,” I whispered, barely audible. I pointed my wand at him, but I was shaking so much. “Renervate.” Nothing happened. No. No. Please. Don’t be gone. Don’t be dead.

“He’s gone.” Luna whispered, gently closing his eyes.

Harry was on his feet, screaming, “Bellatrix!”

And she laughed- Laughed!- as she dashed from the room, her dark curls billowing out behind her.

Harry chased her, firing curse after curse.

“Harry! No!” I screamed after him as he pushed past Remus.

And Remus, Remus hadn’t seen yet, he didn’t know.

“Renervate.” I tried again. Nothing. Tears were clouding my vision, making everything blur together. “Renervate!”

“Emma, Emma.” Draco coaxed the wand from my hands. “What about- what was it?- oh- cardiopulmonary resuscitation, that we learned about in Muggle Studies.”

I was already jumping into action, swiping away my tears with the back of my hand. “You start mouth to mouth, I’ll do chest compressions.”

Over and over we worked, for nearly two minutes, while Ginny and Luna watched in confused awe.

***

_Lily and James watched the battle with fear holding their hearts captive._

_Tonks and Taleus stood beside them, reunited, but feeling incredible guilt, they had left their son alone, an orphan, on his birthday._

_“It’s alright,” James tried to console them. “Teddy won’t be alone, he has Emma and Harry, Remus and Sirius, everyone in the Order, he will never be alone.”_

_But as they watched, the life was draining out of Sirius._

_“James,” Said a voice and he wheeled around._

_Standing there was Sirius, his very best friend in the entire world, was there, with him, after all this time. Fourteen years of waiting and... it was still too soon. He had wanted his best friend to live a long happy life. He hadn’t wanted this._

_But all the same, that would not change the fact that Sirius was here. James took those three steps to reach his friend and embraced him._

_“I’ve missed you.” Sirius said._

_“I’ve miss you too.” James whispered back as they parted._

_Then Lily was there, hugging him too. “Thank you for taking care of our babies.”_

_“Could you see everything that was happening down their?” Sirius asked._

_Lily and James nodded. “They have our old cloak and the map too.”_

_“They’re just like you.” Sirius said._

_“No,” James replied, “They’re better.”_

_Lily exclaimed, “Sirius?! What’s happening?”_

_For, Sirius was fading, becoming translucent and then transparent. He was disappearing._

_James glanced at the bridge to the living world where Draco and Emma were bent over Sirius’s body. “They’re saving him.” He whispered in awe._

_Lily laughed, filled with delight. “You’re going back! You’re going back! Can you take a message for us?”_

_“Of course! I don’t know if I’ll remember, but I’ll try.” He was mostly gone now._

_”Tell Teddy that we’re sorry we had to go, but it was to try and give him a better life, a better future. And that we love him, more than anything.” Tonks whispered._

_“Tell them- Emma and Harry- that we love them.” Lily got out._

_“And we are so proud of them.” James added. “And tell Remus we love him too and miss him.”_

_“And tell him, tell him to be happy, Sirius, tell him to be happy.” Lily finished and then Sirius was gone._

***

“I don’t think it’s working,” Ginny whispered, sitting back on her heels, tears sliding down her face.

And then, suddenly, Sirius coughed. And then he was on his side, retching and grasping at his throat, but very much alive.

And I was hugging Sirius and Draco and then both of them at the same time. And somehow Ginny and Luna were a part of it too and we were a mess of limbs and tears.

A scream brought us back to the present. It sounded like a woman’s- Bellatrix’s scream.

“He’s going to kill her.” I said and leapt to my feet.

Draco followed me and we had almost made it back to the atrium when Lucius blocked our path. He tutted his tongue at us as though he was somehow greater, above, higher than us both. “Don’t make me hex you.” I hissed, my eyes narrowed and wand raised in warning.

“I’ve got this,” Draco hissed in my ear, then in my head, he added, ‘Go get your brother.’

As I ran to catch my brother and stop him from murdering Bellatrix, I kept one side of my brain linked with Draco’s.

“Come on, Draco, think about what you are doing. Stand down.” Lucius said.

“No.” Draco said, firmly.

“No? No?! I order you to stand down!” Lucius growled.

“No!” Draco repeated.

“All of this for what? For a girl? She is nothing, in a few years, she will mean nothing! She will be but a memory! Family comes first!”

“If family came first, then you wouldn’t have become a death eater in the first place! Expelliarmus!” Draco shouted.

Lucius opened his mouth to cast some spell and the connection broke. I had gotten too far away, we weren’t strong enough yet to hold the connection this far. I stopped running. I looked back to where I knew Draco was, and then ahead to the atrium. Draco or Harry.

I took off towards the atrium. Draco’s father wouldn’t kill him... I hoped. But Bellatrix would have no qualms with killing Harry.

I could only hope that I had made the right choice.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Only one left!


	21. Burdens

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The Final Chapter....

There was Harry, standing tall with his wand pointed straight at Bellatrix’s heart. She was on the ground and she looked... scared. No, it couldn’t have been fear, Bellatrix didn’t fear, she wasn’t capable of it. But then I saw someone appearing, stepping out of a wall of flame.

His face was white, so very white, and his eyes were slits, barely there, with red pupils. He was adorned in long flowing black robes that covered everything from the neck down, except for his long spindly fingers that were wrapped, almost delicately around his wand.

Harry’s back was turned to Voldemort, and he was so focused on Bellatrix that I doubted he would have noticed Voldemort’s presence even if he had been facing the right direction.

“Give me the prophecy!” Bellatrix shrieked, getting to her feet. “Roll it to me and I may spare your life!” Her eyes darted towards Voldemort and I understood her fear. He was here because she was taking too long to complete her mission.

“Then you’re going to have to kill me!” He hollered back, “Because it’s gone! And he knows! Your dear old mate Voldemort knows it’s gone, he isn’t going to be too happy with you, is he?”

“What? What do you mean?”

“The prophecy smashed when all of those shelves started falling.” And Harry’s eyes were watering, was he in pain?

“Liar!” She shouted, terror filling her voice. “Liar! Accio prophecy! Accio prophecy!”

“Nothing there!” He taunted and laughed.

“No! No!” Bellatrix moaned. “Master, please! I tried Master, please do not punish me!”

“Save your breath!” Harry mocked, “He can’t hear you!”

Voldemort was so close to Harry now. “Can’t I, Potter?” He hissed and Harry whipped around. “So, you have smashed my prophecy, months of hard work and preparations gone within moments. You have irked me far too often for far to long. I am growing rather sick of it.”

“Lacarnum Inflamarae!” I shouted and a ball of flame shot at Voldemort. He was unprepared for it and therefore didn’t manage to block it in time. His robes caught fire and he was forced to redirect his attentions towards putting out the flame. I couldn’t kill him, but I could hurt him. “Bombarda Maxima!” He blasted backwards and was slower to stand than he should have been. And was that blood? I had made him bleed.

“Avada Kedavra!” Voldemort bellowed and I knew I wouldn’t be able to dodge it.

“Protego!” I knew that the shield charm didn’t usually work against the unforgivable curses, but to my surprise it did. “Really Tom?” I taunted him. “Is that the best you’ve got? You seem to be losing your touch. Can’t kill anyone, can you? Not even a fourteen year old girl! You’re weak, pathetic. I thought your fuck up killing the baby was a piece of very bad luck, but now I know, it wasn’t bad luck, it was because you are a failure. You can’t defeat children!”

He seemed utter stunned that my shield charm had been able to save me from a killing curse straight to the heart. It shouldn’t have been possible. Yet somehow, I was still here. “Are you a pureblood?” He asked, perplexed.

I leaned forward, ever so slightly as though I was planning on telling him some big secret. “No.” He revised his wand again. “What? Does that bother you, Tom? Neither are you, no matter what you parade around telling your followers. Your father was a muggle!”

“Avada Kedavra!” He screamed and once more, I blocked it.

Then, something I hadn’t thought possible happened; Voldemort grew even paler. A moment later, I knew why.

“You should not have come here, Tom,” Dumbledore said softly. “The Aurors are already on their way.”

“By the time they arrive, I will be gone and you will be dead!” He hissed, seeming evermore snakelike. He sent a killing curse at Dumbledore, but it veered off course at the last moment and hit one of the fountain’s statues. Oh how I wished I could just kill him and be done with it.

“Too scared to bring your precious snake, eh, Tom?” I called, as slowly, so slowly, I inched towards where Bellatrix was, still on the ground.

Someone’s movement on the other side of the great fountain caught my eye. Neville. Of course he had come out, he was after Bellatrix too. After all she had been the one to torture his parents into insanity. I placed my finger to my lips as we made eye contact. Slowly, he nodded. He ducked down and I couldn’t see him anymore, but I was sure he was inching his way around the fountain.

As Dumbledore and Voldemort dueled, Bellatrix noticed that I was growing closer to her by the second. Angrily, she sent a killing curse in my direction. Perfect. I could distract her while Neville got behind her, he could catch her off guard. As I fought Bellatrix, Neville appeared behind her. Looking back on it, I suppose I should have spoken into his mind to make sure we were on the same page with the plan. But I was too busy reaching out, searching for Draco, hoping he would get close enough to reestablish the connection. Though I knew my efforts were futile, I wouldn’t stop trying.

“Stupefy!” Neville shouted, and Bellatrix collapsed. She was out cold. I conjured ropes and tied her up, snatching her wand. Neville was shaking and though Bellatrix wasn’t moving, he had yet to lower his wand. I said nothing, I knew he was contemplating killing her. It was his choice, after all, if Voldemort could be killed in this moment, then he would already be dead. Voldemort!

The second I remembered he was here, fighting behind us, he shot a spell at Neville. It hit his wand, which snapped on impact. Neville was defenseless. “Go!” I screamed, tossing him Bellatrix’s wand. “Get help, if you need to defend yourself, use this.” He stared at the wand in his hand for a moment before bolting off.

I turned around to survey the battle. Voldemort was gone.

“Stay where you are Harry!” Dumbledore shouted, and for the first time, he seemed to be scared. I turned on the spot, my wand raised, searching for any sign of danger.

And then, with no warning, Harry fell to the floor, screaming in pain. “Harry!” I screamed, and ran forward.

Dumbledore grabbed my arm and pulled me back, “No, don’t.”

If I couldn’t reach him with my body, I would reach him with my mind. As I was making my way into his head, Harry began to speak. But it didn’t sound like Harry. “Kill him, Dumbledore. Kill the boy.” And then I understood. Voldemort was possessing Harry. Faster than ever before, I tunneled inside. Harry’s thoughts echoed around me.

Let the pain stop.

I found Voldemort’s mind, latched onto Harry’s like a leech, like a parasite.

Let him kill us.

I shoved against that parasitic growth, that was Voldemort’s consciousness, with everything I had.

End it, Dumbledore.

‘Get out!’ I screamed into Voldemort’s mind.

Death is nothing compared to this.

I pushed harder, digging every piece of me into the action. Forcing him out, forcing him away.

And I’ll see Sirius again.

Just as Harry thought that gut wrenching thing that made my heart ache, Voldemort lost his hold on Harry. I dove in between that gap, shielding Harry’s mind. And with nothing for Voldemort to hold on to, he couldn’t stay, and once more, he was gone. With Harry’s mind safe from danger, I left it too, returning to the material world.

There were footsteps rushing towards us, several pairs by the sound of it, a dozen or so. And there was Neville, with the others. Luna, Ginny, Ron, Kingsley, Moody, Bill, McGonagall, Sturgis and Fleur. But where were Sirius and Remus, Hermione and Daphne, and Draco, where was Draco?

Dumbledore was crouched down over Harry who had yet to recover from having two people in his head. He was panting hard and shaking so violently that his edges almost seemed to blur. I realized then, that there were tears forming in the corners of my eyes. I refused to let them spill over. I had to be strong, at least until I was home.

I sensed him before he reappeared. I supposed it was my enhanced senses as an animagus to thank for that. So the spell had already crossed my lips, my wand pointed at the place he was to appear. He had prepared his own spell and they collided in the middle, fighting to break past one another.

“Give up little girl,” He hissed, “At least it will be quick.” My hair flew about my face from the strength of our spells. Everyone else was just standing there, mesmerized perhaps, but doing absolutely nothing to offer me any form of assistance. There were dozens of popping sounds to my right, all at once, but I didn’t turn my head. The gasps of many people told me that the first of the Ministry workers had just arrived for the start of their day. And all of them were witnessing a teenager girl facing off with the Dark Lord.

I thought back to my practice duels with Draco, what had I done when this had happened between us? The memory came back to me in an instant. I leapt aside, jerking my wand up to end the spell and shouted, “Relashio!”

But Voldemort was gone. I spun around, but this time, it seemed, he wasn’t coming back.

I turned to the growing crowd of ministry workers, and saw, at the front of it all, the Minister of Magic himself, Cornelius Fudge.

“He’s back,” Fudge whispered in disbelief.

I started towards him, “Yeah, that’s what we’ve been trying to bloody tell you, you great buffoon!”

Ginny and Luna reached my sides and each grabbed one of my arms. “Emma, don’t.” Ginny said. I gave the Minister one last glare and turned on my heel. But I couldn’t help it- so yes, I was as hotheaded as my brother- as I called over my shoulder, “See just how much longer you last, Minister.”

“Minerva,” Dumbledore said, standing up from his position, crouched beside Harry. “If you could, please take these students back to Hogwarts- to the Hospital Wing. I believe Mr. Malfoy, Miss. Granger and Miss. Greengrass are already there. Then alert their parents as to what has happened, grant them entry to the castle. I dare say they will need to come see their children.”

McGonagall nodded curtly and ushered us all towards a fireplace. I thought we would wait for Harry, but Dumbledore was helping him up and he was moving terribly slowly.

Once we were to the Hospital Wing, Madam Pomfrey busied herself immediately, tutting around us and forcing us into beds.

Draco was unconscious, a thick bandage wrapped around his forehead, but he looked to be, otherwise, alright. Hermione looked fine too, as did Daph. In fact, upon surveying the others, I realized just how lucky we had been to get out relatively unscathed.

Madam Pomfrey made me drink something that tasted most closely to Apple Cider vinegar mixed with muddy pond water.

Where was Harry? Was my last thought before I drifted off to sleep.

***

When I woke, Neville’s grandmother was seated at the foot of his bed. A bright light shone through the windows, around midday then, I suspected. I hadn’t slept for very long at all. I craned my neck around, but found that everyone else was still asleep and no other parental figures had arrived yet.

Neville and Augusta were speaking quietly to one another, so quietly that a normal human wouldn’t have been able to pick up on it.

“So you’ve been going to these secret meetings for months?” Augusta asked.

“Yeah, Harry’s a really good teacher, Gran. I can do a patronus now.” Neville replied.

“Really?” Augusta failed to hide her surprise. “A corporeal one?”

“Yup,” Said Neville and a hint of pride leaked into his voice.

“And what is it?”

“A lion.” He said and if the pride hadn’t been evident before, it was now.

“You really are living up to the Longbottom name.” Augusta praised and Neville beamed. “So, you were caught, by Umbridge, and then what?”

“She had her Inquisitorial Squad bring us down to the dungeons, so we knocked them out. Harry had this vision, of his Godfather being attacked, so we escaped the castle and rode thestrals to the Ministry. Turns out it was all a trick from V-Voldemort and his death eaters and they ambushed us. We destroyed the thing they were after and then Voldemort himself showed up. He was busy fighting Dumbledore and Emma was fighting Bellatrix. So I knocked out Bellatrix. This is her wand.” He held up the wand that I had thrown to him after I had ripped it from Bellatrix’s hand.

“That is the wand that made your parents lose their minds?” Augusta asked in an even more hushed whisper.

Neville nodded solemnly.

“And how did your wand break?” She asked when he said nothing and the silence had begun to stretch over slow, agonizing minutes.

“Voldemort blew it up.” Neville explained.

Augusta nodded once more and said, “You really are turning out to be your parent’s son, through and through.”

***

Dumbledore had told Harry about the prophecy, during that hazy period in which the rest of us had been in the hospital wing.

Draco, Hermione and Daphne were indeed alright.

Remus was in St. Mungo’s, one of the death eaters had severed off a big chunk of skin on his chest and the wound wasn’t healing right. Sirius had rushed him their, and they’d barely made it in time. Sirius stayed to watch over baby Teddy as the adoption papers were filed and accepted.

Cornelius Fudge had been fired and Dolores Umbridge had been removed from the school.

Draco and I decided to take all of the O.W.L.S, including those for the classes we hadn’t taken. Thus far, only three people had done this and succeed in getting all twelve O.W.L.S. and we wanted to be numbers four and five.

I knew for sure that I had gotten at least ‘Exceeds Expectations’ for the classes I had taken. But for the classes I hadn’t... I had no clue. I wouldn’t dwell on that now though, there wasn’t a point to it.

It wasn’t until after all of my exams were finished with, that I was able to actually sneak down to the chamber of secrets to listen to the two prophecies.

Once I was there, I settled myself cross legged on the ground, with them placed before me. They looked exactly identical, indistinguishable from one another, so I just stared at them for a good long while. Finally I gathered my courage and plucked one up.

“Speak to me,” I whispered and it shone brighter for a moment before a man’s voice began to emanate from deep within it.

“The most powerful death eater to walk the earth is born… The half blooded witch, to the Muggleborn mother and a pureblood father… Orphaned before her first full moon… A secret well-made and kept, shared with precious few… She shall be the destruction of he whom she loves most dearly, the brother known by all… The most powerful death eater to walk the earth...” The cold voice finished, reverberating around the chamber.

I took in a shaky breath. She shall be the destruction of he whom she loves most dearly, the brother known by all. If this prophecy came to pass, I would be the one to kill Harry. Kill Harry? It made no sense, I would never kill him. Not all prophecies come to pass. I reminded myself of that little fact over and over again.

Carefully, I returned that prophecy to its place on the ground and lifted the other, cupping it gently in my palms. I had absolutely no idea what laid within this one, not a clue.

“Speak to me.” And it did.

“The Heir of Slytherin... made, not born… Chosen by Salazar himself… The finder of something long since thought gone… She possesses the power, the skill… Gifted and gained… Her hair red as a flame… A heart filled with gold… Only she can stop the greatest horror in the world before it begins… The Heir of Slytherin… Could become the great salvation… Though no one will know it…”


End file.
